4. Summer Schools – DIY Recycled Paper & DIY Hand Puppets

4. Summer Schools – DIY Recycled Paper & DIY Hand Puppets

This year’s Blue Flag Activities engaged an attractive number of summer school students from five different summer schools located in villages where the blue flag beaches are located. Despite COVID-19 restrictions, the majority of activities ran smoothly through pre-filmed tutorials. Participants created puppets of fish and crabs out of pre-used paper which enabled them to create several stories related to the creatures and other sea animals. Apart from the craft video tutorial, the pre-filmed session informed participants about the list of beaches which achieved blue flag certificates and the eligibility criteria for the certification. Another session focused on encouraging children to create recyclable paper where the representatives explained the steps and highlighted how by using rough, pre-used paper, a sieve and some cloths, the participants will be able to create their own paper on which they can express themselves artistically. Furthermore, the pre-filmed session included an animated video outlining the process of paper production and its effects on the environment. A video differentiating the paper which can be recycled was shown to stress the importance of such activity. All of the latter mentioned activities were presented to the five summer schools’ localities where Malta’s Blue Flag beaches are situated.