Sustainability in Family Day Care

It is very important to teach children to appreciate nature and to care for the environment . This helps them learn their responsibility towards environment at an early age.  

Educators can embed sustainable practices at their service and engage children in sustainability. Below are some of the ideas that encourage sustainability.

• Important conversations
• Activities using natural resources
• Reuse discarded plastic
• Creating games with recycled materials
• Creating edible gardens
• Sustainable outdoor areas
• Recycling and planting
• Composting
• Involving Families by providing plastic free lunch boxes for children.
• Children and Families can contribute by bringing recycled materials like bottle tops, cereal boxes, cardboards etc in day care and use in children’s art and craft activities
• Using Natural Light in Playrooms , Reducing energy use
• Water saving activities and water harvesting using water tanks 

Some of the examples of activities which can done with children to promote sustainability

1. Growing Herbs, Vegetables, Fruits with Children

                       

2. Using Old Newspapers to wrap Gifts

3. Using recycled materials like paper towel rolls, old CDs, egg cartons , bottle tops in children play, art and craft

4.Stacking Cardboard tubes on old CDs: What a fun and easy activity for  Fine Motor skills, hand eye coordination, balancing  and sustainability

5. Here is one of example where children made “five little speckled frogs”  from their favourite song, using recycled egg carton and paper towel cardboard.

6. Loose Parts Play with Recycled Material     

   

 7. Using Natural Resources in Children Play