Change the world in five minutes

COULTER: Can a bunch of primary school kids really change the world? Well, we’re going to try.

Hi, I’m Coulter, and my class and I have split into teams and we’re going to spend the first five minutes of school every day this week changing the world.

Monday – Recycle your old mobile phone

COULTER: At our house we have heaps of old mobiles lying around and across Australia they reckon there are about 10 million. And the parts can all be recycled so we’ve asked every kid in school to bring in their old mobiles and we have five minutes to pick them up. Mobiles have these really poisonous chemicals in them and when we chuck them out with the garbage, the chemicals go into the water and soil and end up in our food.

Recycle old mobiles at phone shops.

Tuesday – Plant something to feed yourself

DANA: Hi, I’m Dana, and this is a seedling. And at our school we turn this into this. This morning my group has two challenges. First we have to weed our garden and plant new veggies. Then we have to feed our whole class and we only have three minutes left.

Tuesday is our Munch ’n’ crunch day where local growers donate fruit and veg for us to eat. But today we’re adding stuff from our own garden.

Why burn fuel transporting veggies? Grow your own!

Wednesday – Turn off lights and appliances

BRIDGET: Hey, I’m Bridget, and today me and my group are on a mission to turn off all the electrical stuff in the school that’s not being used. ’Cos it’s not like you can deny global warming any more. And wasting power is one of the big planet warmers.

Think twice – do you need the air con on?

TEACHER: Hey, who did that?

Thursday – Recycle your old books and toys

GABY: Hi, I’m Gaby. Most kids in my class say they want new toys, games and books and things like that but they also think they’ve got a whole bunch of stuff they don’t want any more.

So rather than chuck things into landfill and buy new stuff, our group’s organised everybody to bring in something and we’re having a five-minute free garage sale. An Aussie family of four generates nearly seven tonnes of waste every year, which is a third more than we did ten years ago.

Don’t want it? Swap it! Don’t chuck it.

Friday – Tell one good joke

FINN: Hey, I’m Finn, and my group has challenged everyone in the class to bring in the shortest and best joke they know. We have five minutes to tell 30 jokes.

STUDENT 1: This guy walks into a bar. What do you think he says? Ouch.

STUDENT 2: Why does the ocean roar? You would too if you had crabs on your bottom.

STUDENT 3: What do you call a deer with no eyes? No idea.

FINN: It’s been proven that laughter decreases stress, cures sickness and helps people live longer.

1 minute laughing = 10 minutes rowing

STUDENT 3: What do you call a deer with no eyes and no legs?

STUDENT 4: Why can’t eggs tell each other jokes?

STUDENT 5: What type of monster is a … wait, no, no. I got it wrong.

STUDENT 6: What is the best day to get a tan at the beach?

STUDENT 7: Why did the veggies laugh?

STUDENT 5: What type of cheese does a monster eat? Monsterella.

COULTER: Five minutes might not sound like much but it’s roughly 16 hours a year for each person. Four classes could give nearly 2,000 hours a year to changing the world. All in just five minutes a day. So what could your class do?

© NFSA