Teaching Sustainability at Aspire Atherstone
Sustainability in early education is about encouraging environmentally conscious values and practices in young children from an early age. At Aspire, we recognise the importance of teaching our children about sustainability, recycling and environmental awareness through hands-on learning and different educational experiences.
At our Aspire Early Education Atherstone centre, learning and implementing sustainability practices throughout their programs is a core focus of the centre. Over the last year, they have implemented different experiences around sustainability, including a recent sustainability project that has involved different learning experiences for the children each week. Learn more below about their sustainability initiatives.
Aspire Atherstone’s Sustainability Projects
Aspire Atherstone recently implemented a sustainability initiative that included different projects around the centre for each room to participate in.
Step 1 – Community Garden
The Toddler children in Acacia and Banksia rooms recently worked together to support one of the community projects. They worked together to make a community garden for the front entrance of our centre.
The children had the opportunity to add in the soil with shovels, while the educators guided them to add the herbs in the planter boxes.
Step 2 - Our Flower Garden
The children in the Kinder rooms were also involved in the sustainability project across the service, by completing a flower garden in the outdoor yard. They dug their own holes using shovels, before carefully adding the flowers in and moving the soil to support the plants. The children are very excited to see these flowers blossom!
Step 3 - Bush Tucker Garden
Our sustainability approach was also in full flight with the children recreating Atherstone’s Bush Tucker Garden. They added the plants with support of the educators, then added the signs to the correct plants.
Each morning the children will water the plants and learn to support their growth.
The rooms have also been creating a range of sustainable displays around the centre. In the Acacia room, the toddler room used recycling Woolworths paper bags to create their own trees for display. The children painted the bags and used leaves from the outdoor environment to decorate them. This was a good way to reuse paper bags that may have ended up in the waste instead. In the Bankia room, the Toddler room painted cans for their sustainable display, which also features tree branches, recycled materials and different sustainable resources.
These various activities create a hands-on learning experience for the children, and teaches them about recycling practices, sustainability, our natural environment and more.
The Importance of Learning about Sustainability in Early Education
As an early education provider, we believe it is important to teach our children about sustainability and the importance of protecting the environment, which is why it is a focus in our curriculum. By implementing sustainability activities in the children’s daily routines, it helps them become more aware of the impact their actions can have on the natural environment. It also means they are more likely to model this behaviour at home as well.
Teaching children about sustainable practices early on in their life can have a positive impact on their environmental attitudes and behaviours. It can help children develop a greater appreciation of the environment and its relationship to their worlds.
Young children’s actions today establish the groundwork for a future where they responsibly care for the environment, which is critical to creating a sustainable future for our planet.
Contact our Atherstone team if you are keen to learn more about their sustainability practices or book a tour of the centre today to explore the centre for yourself. Book at tour through our online calendar here.
