Green It, Grow It, Eat It

From Little Things Big Things Grow

•     We have developed a unique environmental program, based on “Reduce, Re-use and Recycle”.
•    We have worm farms, compost bins and chickens that help us with waste disposal.
•    We also have a veggie patch so we can

•    GREEN IT,
•    GROW IT,
•    EAT IT!

The Environment Group met for the first time on 21st March, 2007.  Members were Annette Corben (staff rep), Linda Dunk and Lisa Wriley.  We were also joined by Mia Hughes who has worked on the Little Green Steps program for Gosford and Wyong councils.

They were keen to work on further development of the preschool’s natural environment and initiatives to increase the preschool’s environmental sustainability. Some of the ideas discussed at the meeting were:

•    To investigate funding for various projects such as rainwater tanks, a grey water system, further waste minimization projects, energy conservation and development of the preschool’s gardens.
•    Establishing a roster of parents who are willing to help with animal and garden care on a regular basis.
•    Surveying parents to see which environmental projects they are most interesting in seeing completed and what skills parents may be able to contribute.  
•    Documenting the many environmentally friendly activities already undertaken.
•    The possibility of establishing a bush tucker garden and further development of vegetable, fruit and herb gardens.
•    Further investigation of green cleaning techniques suitable for the preschool.
This initiative has continued and grown and our preschool is now considered a leader on the Central Coast in environmental practices for young children. We still have close ties with Gosford and Wyong Councils with their Little Green Steps program and we hold Open Days for the local TAFE College to showcase our environmental practices to other early childhood educators.
 

Some ways we have incorporated Environmental Sustainability in our Preschool Programme.

As the environment “teaches” children we wish to create an environment that promotes and reinforces some principles of environmental sustainability. We are doing that in some of these ways.
 In 2004, a group observation of children playing and discussing their miniature Otto bins that they had received from an excursion to the Flora festival led to the establishment of a learning centre where the children were encouraged to sort their waste. Interest developed and the children also learnt about the different types of waste and how we can reduce, recycle and reuse our waste. 
In 2005 Annette applied for a small Waste Recycling Grant from Gosford City Council and SITA. The monies from this grant allowed us to colour code bins throughout the centre, make resources to support sorting our waste, to obtain resources such as paper making kit and books and to purchase small worm farms and establish and get chickens.
We established worm farms and food from our green bins and garden waste are fed to our worms. The worms produce “Worm Wee” which we sell to families and use on our garden as an organic liquid fertiliser. We use the “vermicast” (compost) in our gardens to enrich the soil.

Chickens are kept at Preschool. The Children are involved in their care. They are learning care and respect of living creatures. They let the chickens out of coop each morning. Food scraps are kept and fed to them each afternoon as they are locked back in coop for evening. The children see and witness the lifecycle of chickens as we raise chicks throughout the year. The children also get to take home some produce- freshly laid eggs. The fresh manure and straw from the chickens bedding is added to our compost bins and/or worm farm

The children are actively involved with our gardening projects. We have used some recycled tyres as well as built garden beds to create playground “rooms” to encourage plant growth and vegetable gardens. We use our own compost and liquid fertiliser (from the worm farms) to assist in the plant growth.  

We are active in teaching the children about “water wise” practices. This is programmed for intense focus in the classrooms at certain times throughout the year and it is also part of our everyday programme and practices .i.e. “Please turn the tap off. Remember to save our water.”, “Looks like rain let’s catch some in our trough so we can water the plants later”. Additionally we have installed a large water tank which is plumbed into the toilets for flushing and is used in water play outside and for watering the plants.

Our environmental committee constructed our raised garden beds- this is for growing vegetables and we have planted fruit trees fruit trees. Our food garden will also use products from our composting, worm farms and chickens. We will demonstrate how “rubbish” can be re-used and recycled to help make healthy food to eat. We joined a seed saver program and we will receive seeds that grow into plants that we can collect seeds from and/ or self seed. 

 
Parklands Community Preschool Environmental Group

If you like getting your hands dirty and your family involved in natural activities this is the group for you.

This is a great opportunity to meet and work with some other families and our Preschool educators. 

This year …Emma and Fiona… are assisting this group.  We endeavour to maintain and enhance the environmental learning areas at Preschool and develop enriching programs of environmental awareness and sustainability.  Please see Emma or Fiona if you are interested in joining this group.

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