Dinja Waħda+ Primary

Dinja Waħda+ is our newest education programme that carries our vision of connecting children with nature,  from Kindergarten to Year 6, and giving them the skills to improve nature around them.

Mission

To connect children with nature in a programme that empowers both teachers and pupils to understand nature around us better and take action to improve it.

Welcome to Dinja Waħda+

We hope you find Dinja Waħda+ attractive and fun to carry out. We have taken your feedback, from suggestions in designing the pages to including keywords at the top of the page. We will be with you on your Dinja Waħda+ journey and will be listening to your feedback and suggestions.

Please go through the FAQs section and the Introduction Pack before starting the new Action Guide.

FAQs

How is Dinja Waħda+ different from Dinja Waħda?

The new Action Guide is completely online on the BirdLife Malta website. It is packed full with resources, all of which are online. The new Action Guide has two main changes:

+ Year-specific activities grouped into topics.
+ Each topic is a progression of activities integrating knowledge, values and skills.

Why would I change from Dinja Waħda to Dinja Waħda+

Our Education Team produced Dinja Waħda+ after analysing Dinja Waħda and identifying what changes needed to be made to connect the programme to today’s reality where generations of children have very little or no contact with nature. Our research has showed us that children’s detachment from nature is leading to adults unable to value and protect it. Nature in our country, as all over the world, is in trouble. If you are aware of this and want to do something about it as a teacher, this is the programme for you.

How do I change from one programme to another?

Your Dinja Waħda Coordinator will inform BirdLife Malta that your school would like to participate in Dinja Waħda+. From here, you will be enrolled in the training programme and following completion of training, you can start participating with your class.

How can I find the time to do Dinja Waħda+?

Every effort will be made by BirdLife Malta’s Education Team, to show teachers how to integrate Dinja Waħda+ with the curriculum. This will be done during the initial training as well as through suggestions we will be adding online over time. The activities lend themselves to curricular integration through the variety of language, maths and science skills they integrate. They can also be used for continuous assessment tasks. Keywords at the top of each activity page can be used to guide curriculum links.

How do the activities work?

From the Online Action Guide, find your year group. These are the activities that you will be doing with your class. Each topic has a progression of one to four activities that have been planned to build up the pupils’ knowledge side-by-side with direct observation and action for nature. Follow the directions and find the resources on the BirdLife Malta website. You may choose among topics but any topic you choose must be fully covered. Partially covering a topic would defeat the aim of the new Action Guide to integrate knowledge and values with skills. Only completed topics will be entered in the schools’ award tally. Incomplete topics will not be considered for awards.

Must I do the topics in a particular order?

Many of the activities within the topics have been designed to match a seasonal cycle: autumn/winter/spring/pre-summer. Hence, the first topic you see will be ideal for the first term, and so on. Where seasonal match is essential, it is mentioned in the activity. Otherwise follow the general layout of topics for your year group to match first, second and third scholastic term.

How do I send verification?

Send verification photos to [email protected] specifying the name of school, name of teacher, number of students and name of activity carried out.

Will the points and awards be the same?

When Dinja Waħda+ is launched nationally, the topics and activities will not carry points. A new system will be in place. However, throughout the piloting stage, 200 points will be awarded for every completed topic. This will ensure that your school is in line with the national Dinja Waħda programme in terms of award trophy level.