At Story House Mascot, we as educators reflect and observe on our daily practices and look at how much waste we use within the service. Over the past few weeks, we have brainstormed ideas with the children and educators on how we can save water, paper, plastic and food within our service.
The Minke Whale children have showed great interest in the topic of sustainability and how they can reduce, reuse and recycle. The idea came about when the children were planting the left-over vegetables from the kitchen. The children showed excitement in learning about how they can help their environment by creating a visual reduce, reuse and recycle poster for their room.
The EYLF highlights how intentional teaching practices are important and create opportunities for knowledge building. Here the children use literacy and creative art skills to create their art project to display on their wall. The children work collaboratively on their poster and are proud of their own achievements as they revisit and discuss ways to promote sustainability in their room daily.
The Seals children have taken another approach at sustainability by being aware of how much food they scrap. The educators create discussions with the children about how much food they want before serving, which helps with food wastage. The children are being more aware of how much they waste in the bin as they use their words and non-verbal cues for less or more.
Meanwhile, the Blue Whale children have been busy using cardboard boxes for creative art experiences from recycled boxes every day. The children get excited with these pieces to make many things from cardboard, which are open-ended materials.
Our families have been great contributors at helping us with our sustainable practices by donating paper, pots and pans and any household items. The children get excited as they use them in their play experiences. The National Quality Area 6 highlights the importance of collaborative relationships with families. We value our families as they value the importance of sustainability and share our passion. The children too, love using these in the sandpit as they do many cooking experiences, building on their social skills.
The Penguins have also used cardboard boxes in their pretend play as they reuse and recycle their cardboard boxes. Another sustainable approach which the children and educators are encouraging is saving water. The children use a jug to save water as they wash their hands, which helps reduce water. We are very excited to see how the children react when they use water from the jug to clean their hands.
The Dolphins have been using flowers from the garden to create art experiences. As the children bring in flowers, they appreciate nature and use them in the creative art experiences. It is so lovely to see the children get excited coming to school with their flowers and showing wonder about the beauty of nature and how they can use them in their artwork.
‘’When you put the whole picture together, recycling is the right thing to do’’ – Pam Shoemaker, Author
For enrolment enquiries, please contact Dena at Ph: (02) 9693 2243 or Email: [email protected]
For information regarding our childcare and kindergarten service go to: Story House Early Learning Mascot
