Autumn 2007

Early childhood education & care

Beyond recycling

Early childhood professionals have a wonderful opportunity to influence lifelong attitudes of young children. Ann Smith discusses the ways to approach educating young minds on sustainability issues.

What are some practical aspects of our educational programs that can prepare young children to sustain our planet? We can: teach children how to connect with the natural world; start introducing the big ideas like how to save energy; choose appropriate picture books; and join a support organisation to help with ideas.

Connecting children with the natural world

It is vital that we help young children connect with the natural world. This is the foundation on which we can build an understanding of the challenges of sustainability.

There are many practical and powerful ways we can provide these opportunities for developing an enriched understanding.

Toys and construction sets

A basic way is to use toys and equipment that are made of natural materials. There are wonderful plastic toys available (particularly construction toys), but these should not be the only options offered. If they are, then children will miss valuable opportunities to experience the feel and the properties of wood and other natural materials.

As always, we have to ask ourselves why we are presenting a particular toy or construction set. If it is small motor skills we are trying to support, then these can be developed through such activities as stacking small wooden blocks, moving pebbles with tweezers or constructing a road with twigs in a shallow tray of sand or gravel.

Similarly, counting and sorting activities can easily be based around natural materials.

Imaginative play

Imaginative play can give endless opportunities for the use of natural materials. We can present materials in a wooden tray or in a small basket. We can supply leaves, shells, stones or pieces of silk, cotton or woollen fabric to make beds or food for a tiny teddy or rope doll. It is easy to set up imaginative play experiences in an area bounded by some leafy pot plants.

Outdoors: soil, sand and plants

Outdoors, children naturally gravitate to materials such as sand, water and dirt in which to play. If the whole playground area is covered in synthetic matting, children miss out on many of these wonderful sensory and creative opportunities. It doesn’t take a huge area to have a digging patch with real dirt and strong metal spades. It only needs a small strip of play ground in order to plant shrubs or ferns for children to hide in and behind. Similarly it is not expensive to plant a tree that changes with the seasons. It is vital to create an area where children can grow a garden. This could be as small as a couple of tyres or large pots filled with good soil in a sunny spot. Young and Elliott in Just Discover suggest grass ‘seats’ and other plant ideas for centres with limited space.

Outdoors: creatures

An equally important way we can help children get in touch with the natural world is to introduce children to the processes of growth, interrelationship of organisms and the dependence of living things on each other. Planting cabbage seedlings to attract a cabbage white butterfly allows children to see a lifecycle in process. Keeping meal worms or silk worms or a found caterpillar, does the same. An area of leaf litter with some logs and rocks or the inside of a compost bin become a rich source of bugs. We have the chance to model respect for these little animals and their essential role in the web of life.

As teachers and carers we need to take the time to access some basic information about bugs and plants and birds that children may see in our playground (see ‘websites’ below for some ways to get started). We can pass on these understandings to children. It is very empowering for a young child to be able to say to a sibling or parent ‘that is a millipede not a centipede’ or ‘I know a cicada with wings came out of that shell left on the tree’. While we are doing this we are helping children learn important skills. Assisting young children to develop observation skills will further empower them and motivate them to understand natural organisms and events.

Water tanks

If possible, install a water tank. This helps children’s understanding of where water comes from and educates them about the sensible use of water. Some modern tanks come with a clear panel for children to see the water level. Children can easily connect the rain with the tank water and then use that water on their garden.

Starting on the big ideas: reusing and energy

Another main area to focus our program on is to help children understand some of the big ideas of sound environmental practice. The concept of reusing materials to save energy is an important one.

Whenever we manufacture something, be it a piece of coloured paper or tube of glitter or a paper plate or a patty pan, we use energy.

Producing this energy (usually electricity from coal) puts more greenhouse gases into the air. Therefore reusing materials helps to cut down greenhouse gases.

If we understand these ideas then we can talk about them in terms children can understand, and we support the children’s comprehension of these vital cornerstone ideas.

Putting ‘reuse’ in our program works particularly well in the area of collage construction and creativity. Many gluing construction-type experiences are planned to foster creativity and the development of small motor skills. Usually children can be just as creative and practice just as many small motor skills when they are using reused materials. Of course there are some occasions when we would certainly use new materials, but, as we develop our eye for the wonderful textures and colours and variety of packaging materials, finding them for the children becomes a bigger part of the program.

Do we always need a permanent product as the end point of the creative/skills activity? As Young and Elliott illustrate in Just Discover we can give children a dark cloth covered board and materials for creating patterns and designs. Seed pods and shells and other natural materials could be alternated with interesting reused materials such as juice bottle lids, bread tags and tile off-cuts providing the tactile experiences, the small motor skills and the chance to creatively investigate different visual effects.

We need to be able to communicate to parents the ecological reasons why we are reusing materials and that it not being done just to skimp on the art budget! Parents will usually happily support these endeavours by saving suitable materials once they have been included in the process. Parents can complement and extend these opportunities in the home environment.

Choosing suitable books

Choosing picture books that present environment issues is also important with young children. There are many readily available. For example, if we read a book such as Where the Forest Meets the Sea by Jeannie Baker, we can awaken children to the beauty of the rainforest and talk about change over time. Another book by Jeannie Baker, The Story of Rosy Dock, shows directly the results of introducing an exotic species of plant. Tricia Oktober has a wonderful series of books. The story of Oil Spill introduces the effects of such an event on animals while Oi! Get Off Our Train by John Burningham helps children understand about species extinction.

Joining a support organisation

There are several organisations that exist to support early childhood professionals in this area of sustainability education.

Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria have specific environmental early childhood organisations—though members can live anywhere. The Australian Association of Environmental Education (AAEE) supports teachers of children of all ages, but has a specific early childhood interest group.

These organisations usually have websites, send out newsletters, run professional development sessions and sometimes sell suitable toys and resources. (See details below).

We can make a difference!

Resources

Support organisations
Australian Association for Environmental Education—early childhood special interest group www.aaee.org.au/sig.htm

Environmental Education in Early Childhood, Victoria, http://home.vicnet.net.au/~eeec/

New South Wales Early Childhood Environment Group www.earlychildhoodaustralia.org.au/ nsw_branch/eceen.html

Queensland Early Childhood Environmental Education Network http://rite.ed.qut.edu.au/qeceen/

Buying resources
Environmental Education in Early Childhood (EEEC) http://home.vicnet.net.au/~eeec/

Gould Group www.gould.edu.au/shop/

Lady Gowrie online bookshop www.gowrie-melbourne.com.au/bookshop/ default.asp

Understanding playground animals Birds http://birdsinbackyards.net/

Bugs http://melbourne.museum.vic.gov.au/education/resources.asp

References

Baker, J (1987). Where the Forest Meets the Sea, Greenwillow Books, New York.

Baker, J (1995). The Story of Rosy Dock, Random House, Milsons Point, NSW.

Burningham, J (1989). Oi! Get off Our Train, Cape, London.

Oktober, T (1996). Oil Spill, Hodder Headline, Rydalmere, NSW.

Young, T & Elliott, S (2003). Just Discover, Tertiary Press, Croydon, Victoria.

Ann Smith is lecturer in preservice education (Early Childhood) Science and Maths Education Cluster, University of Melbourne.

The author owns the copyright in this article. For information related to the reuse of this work in any form please contact the publisher denise.quinn@curriculum.edu.au