> The World Environment Day was celebrated in Vila do Bispo with a "Triops' Party" consisting in a theater play, dances and songs about Temporary Ponds. The participants were students from the Primary School.
This year, the World Environment Day on 5th of June, was celebrated in Vila do Bispo, a place located in the most southwestern corner of mainland Portugal, with the "Triops' Party".
Triops vicentinus, whose common name is tadpole-shrimp, was the star of the "Triops's Party". This small animal, a crustacean from the group of the Large Branchiopods, is known for having "three eyes" and being a "living fossil", was the main character of the play performed by the students of the 1st, 2nd and 3rd year of the Vila do Bispo Primary school, in a theatrical adaptation of the children's story "My friends the Triops", by Vanda Brotas, edited by the Project LIFE Charcos.
The "Triops's Party" was held at the Vila do Bispo Cultural Center Auditorium and was attended by pre-school and primary students from the Vila do Bispo School Group. It was performaced two sessions that were also open to parents, families and the population in general. In addition to the play, there was also a dance, with the presentation of a choreography alluding the conservation of the Triops, by the students of the 4th year, who finished the party with the "Song of the Temporary Ponds", with lyrics and music by Tânia Silvestre, and with the audience chanting the chorus "Help save the ponds ... Together we'll make it!"
This celebration resulted from the work developed during this school year in the activities of environmental education of the LIFE Charcos Project, directed to the students of the Primary Schools of Vila do Bispo county. The various activities promoted throughout the school year focused on the discovery of Mediterranean Temporary Ponds and their characteristic fauna and flora, culminating in the realization of this "Triops' Party".
This initiative was stimulated by LPN - League for the Protection of Nature, with the participation and collaboration of all the students of the Vila do Bispo Primary School, its teachers, Cíntia Chong and Tânia Silvestre and with the support of Vila do Bispo City Council.
