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FEATHERSTONE Bloomsbury Publishing Plc 50 Bedford Square, London, WC1B 3DP, UK 29 Earlsfort Terrace, Dublin 2, Ireland BLOOMSBURY, FEATHERSTONE and the Feather logo are trademarks of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc First published in Great Britain, 2021 by Bloomsbury Publishing Plc Text copyright © June O’Sullivan and Nick Corlett, 2021 Photographs © Nick Corlett, © Sarah Jacobs, © Shutterstock, 2021 June O'Sullivan and Nick Corlett have asserted their right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as Authors of this work All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage or retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publishers A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN: PB: 978-1-4729-8412-8; ePDF: 978-1-4729-8414-2 2 4 6 8 10 9 7 5 3 1 Designed by Lynda Murray Printed and bound in India by Replika Press Pvt. Ltd.
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Paper from responsible sources
This book is produced using paper that is made from wood grown in managed, sustainable forests and other sources. It is natural, renewable and recyclable. The logging and manufacturing processes conform to the environmental regulations of the country of origin. To find out more about our authors and books visit www.bloomsbury.com and sign up for our newsletters
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Contents Introduction................................................... 4 Plants and animals
Construction Tissue box animal feet................................ 37
Citrus peel shapes......................................... 6
Egg carton sorters....................................... 38
Introduction to composting........................... 7
DIY puzzles.................................................. 40
Bottle planters............................................... 8
Eco-bricks................................................... 42
Self-watering planters................................... 9
Plastic bottle igloo....................................... 43
Plant drip feeders........................................ 10
Recycled marble run................................... 44
Egg carton planter....................................... 12
Newspaper structures................................. 45
Plant pot scarecrow.................................... 13
Egg carton building blocks.......................... 46
Newspaper plant pots................................. 14 Bird feeder balls.......................................... 15 Seed bombs................................................ 16 Recycled bottle bird feeders....................... 18 Tyre flower beds.......................................... 19 Regrowing vegetables................................. 20 Tyre bug hotel.............................................. 22 Talking about worms................................... 23 DIY bug-hunting kit..................................... 24 Sun, light and wind CD sun catchers.......................................... 25 Tin can lanterns........................................... 26 Glow-in-the-dark fun................................... 27 Tin can wind chimes.................................... 28 Plastic bottle wind spirals........................... 29 Milk bottle windsocks.................................. 30 Water
Drawing and painting Plastic bottle flowers................................... 47 Toilet roll fireworks....................................... 48 Repair broken crayons................................ 50 Old pens become paint............................... 51 Natural paintbrushes................................... 52 Natural paints.............................................. 54 Bottle top stampers..................................... 56 Songs and stories Sock caterpillars.......................................... 57 Storytelling bottle lids.................................. 58 Snail finger puppets.................................... 59 Cardboard box guitars................................ 60 Egg carton crocodiles................................. 61 Recycled music station............................... 62 Bottle top snakes........................................ 64
Homemade bubble blowers........................ 31 Water xylophone......................................... 32 Recycled boats............................................ 33 Water channels............................................ 34 Ice bowling.................................................. 35 Bottle turtles................................................ 36
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Introduction A
central tenet of Early Years Education is to prepare children for undertaking their roles as responsible global citizens. With sustainability finally moving towards the centre of the political and public agenda, there is no better time to engage our toddlers and children in environmentallyfriendly activities and learning. Nursery teachers, parents and carers play a big role in supporting children’s first steps on their journeys to becoming responsible citizens. Too often adults dismiss young children as too young to understand their role, but we disagree. Early education is a natural starting point for learning about the planet and children are much more competent and thoughtful than we give them credit for. Children as young as three can wield quite an influence once they understand the consequences of their behaviour. They can persuade adults to recycle, repair or repurpose more often. Children often challenge us in our nurseries, reminding us to turn off the tap and not waste water, actively collecting litter and pushing us to recycle our packaging not just at work but also at home. The purpose of this book is to share activities that can help nursery teachers, parents and carers provoke conversations with children and with each other about making changes in our daily lives to help us become more responsible, respectful and actively engaged in the sustainability agenda. We are not asking anyone to become an eco-warrior, but small changes make a big difference.
We are influenced by the principles of the concept of permaculture, which advocates living lightly on the planet and in harmony with nature to ensure we can sustain human activities for many generations to come. The seventeen Global Sustainable Development Goals were adopted by all United Nations Member States in 2015, as a shared blueprint for peace and prosperity for people and the planet, now and into the future. They include quality education, climate action and clean water (you can search for the full list online). The activities in this book are designed with these goals in mind.
The eight ‘R’s
The eight ‘R’s are perfect for reminding us of what sustainable options are available, and we’ve used them to inspire the activities in this book. All the ideas are multi-layered and cross-curricular and use music, dance, arts, crafts, science and nature, narration and demonstration to introduce small children to sustainability in an engaging, fun and positive way. We do not have all the answers to sustaining our planet, but we will have greater success if we teach our children about their planet from the earliest age.
Education is a very powerful pathway to sustainability, and as adults we can integrate sustainability into every element of our leadership, pedagogy and operational practice. Sustainability is not a subject or part of an environmental programme; it is central to the whole learning experience and needs to be part of a broad and inclusive quality education.
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1
Reduce
Decrease consumption and wastage of food, materials and resources.
2
Reuse
Use materials many times and for different purposes.
3
Repair
Fix things rather than discarding them or repurposing them.
4
Recycle
Be aware of alternatives to discarding rubbish and educate children on the importance and impact they can have through this.
5
Rot
Let things go back to the earth to enrich the next crop of plants while also providing a habitat for many insects and small rodents.
6
Respect
Nurture understanding of, and respect for, nature and natural processes and reduce the extent to which they are violated, showing consideration and compassion for people and animals.
7
Reflect
The habit or skill of being thoughtful and asking questions.
8
Responsibility
Be trusted to take care of something or to do something worthwhile. Be socially and economically sustainable, for example, by supporting fair trade and local markets.
The structure of the book
The pages are all organised in the same way. Before you start any activity, read through everything on the page so you are familiar with the whole activity and what you might need to plan in advance. What you need lists the resources required for the activity. These are likely to be readily available in most settings or can be bought or made easily. What to do tells you step-by-step what you need to do to compete the activity. The Health & Safety tips are often obvious, but safety can’t be overstressed. In many cases, there are no specific hazards involved in completing the activity, and your usual health and safety measures should
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be enough. In others, there are particular issues to be noted and addressed. Top tips are helpful hints to make an activity work well and have been learned from experience! Taking it forward gives ideas for additional activities on the same theme, or for developing the activity further. These will be particularly useful for things that have gone especially well or where children show a real interest. In many cases, they use the same resources, and in every case, they have been designed to extend learning and broaden the children’s experiences. What’s in it for the children? tells you (and others) briefly how the suggested activities contribute to learning.
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Citrus peel shapes Reuse fruit peel
What you need:
•
Citrus peels: lemons, limes or oranges
• Cookie cutter shapes • Plastic sewing needle • Twine • A baking tray • Heavy items: stones, big books, etc.
What to do: 1.
Remove any remaining fruit from the inside of the citrus peels. This will prevent them from going mouldy.
2.
Cut the peels into smaller sections and then let the children make them into shapes using cookie cutters.
3.
Place the peels on a flat surface and put the baking tray right side up on top. Fill the tray with the heavy items to flatten the peels and leave for 24 hours.
4.
Remove the baking tray and invite the children to arrange the shapes into different patterns.
5.
Using the plastic needle and twine, help the children thread through the middle of the peel shapes to make necklaces, decorations and so on.
What’s in it for the children?
This sensory-based activity allows children to develop and extend their fine motor skills as they handle and thread small objects. This activity reuses fruit peel that would otherwise be wasted. Taking it forward
•
Turn the citrus peel into festive ornaments. Shape them, then leave them out to dry until completely hardened. Using the needle, place a ring of twine through the top and make a loop. They can be hung up around a room.
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Plant drip feeders Keep your plants watered
What you need:
•
What to do: 1.
• Scissors • A sharp knife or a drill with a
Ensure the outside of the bottles have the labels removed and there is no residue left in them.
2.
Using the sharp knife or drill, cut 10 – 15 holes around the bottle at various heights. An adult should do this part.
•
3.
Carefully cut off the base of the bottle (around 2 cm from the bottom) and keep the lid on the bottle. An adult should do this part too.
4.
If you are starting a new hanging basket, add soil to the bottom of the basket, then place the water bottle with the bottle lid down into the middle and fill the basket with more soil, making sure the open end of the bottle is still exposed. Then plant your choice of plants.
5.
If you are creating a drip feeder for an established plant pot, simply follow steps 1– 3 above and then add the bottle by digging a small hole in the middle of the plants.
6.
Fill the bottle with water, which will slowly drip-feed the plants.
Soda bottles (washed and dried)
small drill piece
Hanging baskets: established ones which have been filled with plants or new ones
Top tip Make sure the bottle is completely drained and that the soil is dry before inviting children to refill the drip feeder.
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What’s in it for the children?
This activity teaches children that we need to respect and care for all living things for which we have responsibility. Taking it forward
• •
Use this method in outdoor garden beds with bigger bottles. To release water more slowly, only drill the holes on one side of the bottle and lay it down sideways on top of the soil.
Health & Safety
Using a sharp knife on bottles can easily cause an injury from slipping. Make sure you have someone there to help you and take your time. Always keep the knife out of reach of children. 50 fantastic ideas for sustainability
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