Sneem children say ‘Bee bright save light’

WE all know the popularity of the Elf on the Shelf and now pupils at Sneem National School have taken this idea to a whole new level with the creation of their own version of this popular character to help save households money.

Following weeks of brainstorming the pupils came up with their character of Mr Bee whose role in the household is to help remind everyone to turn off the lights.

Mr Bee can be moved from room to room to remind everyone to turn off the lights in his chosen location and such has been the success of his role that households across Sneem have begun to save money on their electricity bills.

“We brainstormed on the way we could save energy and then wecameupwiththeideaofan Elf on the Shelf character that you can move around. Then we came up with different characters including a snake and finally we got Mr Bee,” explained pupil Sive O’Leary.

She is one of a five-member team ‘The Legendary Light Savers’ who are representing the school on this project. However, all fourth, fifth and sixth class pupils helped with the unique idea for the SEAI One Good Idea competition. Team members also include William Davies, James O’Sullivan, Darragh Murphy and Fionn O’Leary.

Their unique idea has now put Sneem National School up there among with best ideas in the country as they are in the top 20 projects going forward to the next stage of the competition.

Mr Bee’s slogan is Bee Bright Save Light and Mr Bee characters, made from pipe cleaners and toilet rolls, have been handed out to households across the village and to all the families in the school to help save electricity

“We asked people about turning off their lights and explained about the damage you are doing the environment if you leave them on. We explained about Mr Bee and we gave people a Mr Bee for their house,” said Darragh.

The team created two Power Point presentations for the rest of the school demonstrating how to use Mr Bee and how to make their own Mr Bee. They then created a four-minute video about their project for SEAI and with their own unique theme tune based on the wellknown chorus ‘I would walk 500 miles’

The pupils and parents have all learned a lot from the project and are very aware of how to conserve energy by turning off the lights and they are hopeful that their unique project will make it to the next stage of the competition.

“This is the furthest we have ever got. It is very exciting,” says Fionn

Photo by Sinead Kelleher. Sive O’Leary, James O’Sullivan, Fionn O’Leary and Darragh Murphy at St Michael’s National School in Sneem with Mr Bee, a character they have created in a bid to help households save electricity.