On Saturday the 5th of November, as a part of the eco-schools movement, the Housing and Habitat service group got together to build the S block garden bed. We had initially laid the foundations on Thursday and learnt all the background information therefore when we arrived at 10 AM, we got straight to work.

We first had to make the mortar. We did this by ensuring that the ratio of sand to cement was fixed, we then mixed it until the color was consistent, and then we mixed it with water. This was an interesting process as the ratios involved between the cement, sand and water had to be absolutely perfect. Once the mortar was ready, we then began to lay the bricks. This was yet again, another extremely precarious process, as we had to ensure that the spacing between the bricks was absolutely perfect.

 

It was an extremely interesting process learning about valuable life skills such as making mortar from cement and laying bricks. I enjoyed working collaboratively and hope that we can do this again in the future at the Vidyaloka Vidyalaya school; our local partnered school.

Learning outcomes:

Identify your own strengths and develop areas for personal growth: While building, I learnt that there were certain aspects of bricklaying that I was strong at and certain areas where I definitely needed to show improvement. I could use these experiences for future projects.

Demonstrate that challenges have been undertaken, developing new skills in the process: Having never done an activity like this in the past, there were definitely a lot of challenges I had to undertake and all the skills I developed were new processes.