'Message in a Bottle Top' Artwork

The children of English Martyrs' have worked hard to create artwork using recycled plastic bottles and lids.

The aim of the artwork was to highlight how wildlife is affected by plastic waste.

Take a look at some of our fantastic masterpieces and make sure to read our supporting statements. These highlight what we created, the message we wanted to share and the impact that plastic has on our environment. 

☆ Reception☆

☆ 4B☆

In year 4, we have been learning about plastic pollution and how it is affecting our planet. Plastic pollution plays a massive role for global warming, which is a major concern for the planet.

Animals are dying consuming plastic products thinking it’s food. As a result, lots of sea creatures including whales, seals and birds are in danger and might become extinct. We have to take appropriate measures with the help of our community and government to recycle and to get rid of the single use plastic.

We are already a Plastic Free School, trying to raise awareness about its less usage.

Today, our class made a sculpture of a whale, using bottle tops, plastic wrappers and plastic bottles, showing how plastic is affecting our sea animals in coastlines and inspiring us to save our planet. Every little change can make a huge difference. Together we can do it.

☆ 3B☆

3B collected 50 bottle tops.

3B decided to create an underwater scene to show the devastating impact our plastic consumption is having on marine life. Each child made a sea creature out of a plastic bottle top. This is to illustrate that sea creatures are consuming plastic thinking it is food which is causing harm to them and as a result many of them die We too are eating fish which may have eaten plastic. The large shark in the middle of the scene shows a shark eating the bottle tops with some falling out saying, “Recycle Me”. This shows that although companies are telling people to recycle them, many people still aren’t and are not disposing them correctly. As a result, they are falling to the sea floor which as a result is becoming a sea floor full of plastic.

☆4A☆

☆ 3A☆

Our aim in Year 3A was to capture the fact that God’s creatures under the oceans, ingest plastic: ‘Plastics pollution has a direct and deadly effect on wildlife. Thousands of seabirds and sea turtles, seals and other marine mammals are killed each year after ingesting plastic or getting entangled in it… ‘every year, billions of pounds of more plastic end up in the world's oceans. Studies estimate there are now 15–51 trillion pieces of plastic in the world's oceans — from the equator to the poles, from Arctic ice sheets to the sea floor. Not one square mile of surface ocean anywhere on earth is free of plastic pollution.’ https://www.biologicaldiversity.org/campaigns/ocean_plastics/

Each child used a bottle top lid and created a sea creature from it. We painted a large cardboard box, to form the ocean scene.

We reflected upon the fact that the plastic is now part of the creature, due to ingesting it. In turn, we consume many of these sea creatures as part of our daily diet. We concluded that through our misuse and use of plastic we are abusing God’s creation, which includes ourselves.