See you there!
- Anja
Sunday, September 18, 2011
Friday, September 9, 2011
Green Gold for Little Earth Montessori
On the 9th of September, 2009, we celebrated the opening of Little Earth Montessori preschool. Today, exactly 2 years later, Little Earth achieved the Enviroschools Green Gold Award. We are very proud of this achievement. It recognises our efforts to develop Little Earth into a truly sustainable community.
Enviroschools is run by the Enviroschools Foundation, a charitable national trust that provides leadership, support, and opportunities that empower children and young people to work in intergenerational ways to create healthy, peaceful and resilient communities. The awards scheme is designed to encourage schools to become actively involved in environmental education and to undertake environmental initiatives that will make a real difference in the community. There are three levels of awards, bronze, silver and the prestigious green gold.
Last year Little Earth received the silver award. Our journey didn’t stop there. We continued to strengthen our connection with nature and the environment to create an embedded culture of sustainability and to encourage our children to enact as part of their daily thinking and actions. Today, Little Earth has a whole school approach based on the five Enviroschools guiding principles.
- Respect for the diversity of people and cultures
Integral to to achieving a sustainable environment in New Zealand - one that is fair, peaceful and co-operative and makes the most of our rich cultural traditions.
- Learning for sustainability
Children are engaged in the physical, social, cultural and political aspects of our local and global environment.
- Sustainable communities
Children are part of a sustainable community that acts in ways that nurture people and nature, now and in the future.
- Empowering students
Children are empowered to participate in a genuine way from their own unique and creative perspective.
- Maori perspectives
Maori perspectives and knowledge of the environment enrich the learning process and offer insights unique to the culture, honouring the status of indigenous people in this land.
The four Enviroschools key areas of school life that have an effect on sustainability and the children’s learning are incorporated at Little Earth.
- place, including physical surroundings
- practices, including operational sustainable paractices
- programmes, including a living curriculum
- people and participation, including organisational management.
Achieving the Green Gold award is a huge accomplishment for our preschool. It involves a lot of hard work, commitment, time, resources and, most importantly, support from our community. Our children, our parents and whanau, our teachers, and our management have all worked together and created a community based on a culture of respect for the environment, all living creatures and for each other as well as for themselves.
A team of Enviroschools delegates, teachers, management and parents spend the day to reflect on the journey Little Earth has undertaken. We created a koru to visual represent our journey from humble beginnings at our Tawa Montessori Preschool in 2005 until the Green Gold today, finishing with small koru rippling out as our journey continues. The koru represents the fern frond as it opens, bringing new life to the world. The koru also represents peace and tranquility along with new beginnings.
I'd like to take this opportunity to thank you, our global network of readers, for all the support, enthusiasm and inspiration we have received over the years. Sharing your ideas and experiences, and giving feedback through blog comments, emails, direct messages, tweets, Facebook and Skype are invaluable. You are all part of the journey.
The Green Gold award is a long term commitment of Little Earth to sustainability. It is not the end, the journey continues.
- Anja
Enviroschools is run by the Enviroschools Foundation, a charitable national trust that provides leadership, support, and opportunities that empower children and young people to work in intergenerational ways to create healthy, peaceful and resilient communities. The awards scheme is designed to encourage schools to become actively involved in environmental education and to undertake environmental initiatives that will make a real difference in the community. There are three levels of awards, bronze, silver and the prestigious green gold.
Last year Little Earth received the silver award. Our journey didn’t stop there. We continued to strengthen our connection with nature and the environment to create an embedded culture of sustainability and to encourage our children to enact as part of their daily thinking and actions. Today, Little Earth has a whole school approach based on the five Enviroschools guiding principles.
- Respect for the diversity of people and cultures
Integral to to achieving a sustainable environment in New Zealand - one that is fair, peaceful and co-operative and makes the most of our rich cultural traditions.
- Learning for sustainability
Children are engaged in the physical, social, cultural and political aspects of our local and global environment.
- Sustainable communities
Children are part of a sustainable community that acts in ways that nurture people and nature, now and in the future.
- Empowering students
Children are empowered to participate in a genuine way from their own unique and creative perspective.
- Maori perspectives
Maori perspectives and knowledge of the environment enrich the learning process and offer insights unique to the culture, honouring the status of indigenous people in this land.
The four Enviroschools key areas of school life that have an effect on sustainability and the children’s learning are incorporated at Little Earth.
- place, including physical surroundings
- practices, including operational sustainable paractices
- programmes, including a living curriculum
- people and participation, including organisational management.
Achieving the Green Gold award is a huge accomplishment for our preschool. It involves a lot of hard work, commitment, time, resources and, most importantly, support from our community. Our children, our parents and whanau, our teachers, and our management have all worked together and created a community based on a culture of respect for the environment, all living creatures and for each other as well as for themselves.
A team of Enviroschools delegates, teachers, management and parents spend the day to reflect on the journey Little Earth has undertaken. We created a koru to visual represent our journey from humble beginnings at our Tawa Montessori Preschool in 2005 until the Green Gold today, finishing with small koru rippling out as our journey continues. The koru represents the fern frond as it opens, bringing new life to the world. The koru also represents peace and tranquility along with new beginnings.
LITTLE EARTH - GREEN GOLD
We have a living evolving school vision which involves strengthening our connection with nature. The outdoors serves as an extension of the classroom. The Enviroschools Guiding Principles are woven into all aspects of our school life. Caring for our environment is a fundamental value woven throughout our programme, influencing all our decisions and actions. Our children love and appreciate nature, developing an understanding they have shared responsibilities for the environment and humanity. Supported by adults, they make decisions and take action in their community. At Little Earth sustainability is embedded in our daily thinking and actions. There are many examples of changes that show we are making a difference. The vibrant and healthy environment at Little Earth supports our community towards sustainability. “The community come to us and we come to the community.” Maori perspectives enrich our journey. We honour the diversity of people within the community, combining intergenerational wisdom with each other’s unique perspectives.
I'd like to take this opportunity to thank you, our global network of readers, for all the support, enthusiasm and inspiration we have received over the years. Sharing your ideas and experiences, and giving feedback through blog comments, emails, direct messages, tweets, Facebook and Skype are invaluable. You are all part of the journey.
The Green Gold award is a long term commitment of Little Earth to sustainability. It is not the end, the journey continues.
- Anja
Wednesday, September 7, 2011
Healthy eating (2), making our own lemon honey
Tawa Montessori Preschool has several fruit trees growing in their garden. We have an apple tree, a pear tree, a mandarin tree and a lemon tree. Our lemon tree is heavy with lemons. This year we decided to use the lemons to make lemon honey.
This is how we make our own lemon honey.
Use a zester to get the rind of the lemon peel.
Add melted butter and sugar.
Collect some of our chicken eggs.
Add the eggs, the lemon juice and rind and mix and cook in the microwave.
This is how we make our own lemon honey.
Ingredients: 50 gm butter, 3 eggs, 1 cup sugar, and a few lemons.
Harvest the lemons.
Wash the lemons.
Squeeze the juice of of the lemons, lots of them.
Use a zester to get the rind of the lemon peel.
Add melted butter and sugar.
Collect some of our chicken eggs.
Add the eggs, the lemon juice and rind and mix and cook in the microwave.
Sweet!
- Anja
Gardening, cooking, serving and eating, composting— these are truly basic things, but the lessons they could teach are drowned out by the clamor of the media and the insidious temptations of consumerism. Kids today are bombarded with a pop culture which teaches redemption through buying things. School gardens, on the other hand, turn pop culture upside–down. They teach redemption through a deep appreciation for the real, the authentic, and the lasting—for the things money can’t buy—the very things that matter most of all if we are going to lead sane, healthy, and sustainable lives. Kids who learn environmental and nutritional lessons through school gardening—and school cooking and eating—learn how to lead ethical lives. —Alice Waters
- Anja
Alice Waters, “A World of Possibilities,” in Margo
Crabtree ed. The Edible Schoolyard, (Berkeley, Learning in
the Real World, Center for Ecoliteracy, 1999), p. 15.
71 Author’s Interview with Rochelle Davis, Illinois Healthy
School Campaign, July 9, 2004.
Crabtree ed. The Edible Schoolyard, (Berkeley, Learning in
the Real World, Center for Ecoliteracy, 1999), p. 15.
71 Author’s Interview with Rochelle Davis, Illinois Healthy
School Campaign, July 9, 2004.
Thursday, September 1, 2011
Healthy eating (1), making our own pesto
At Little Earth we have been learning how we can use our garden produce for our daily needs at preschool. We like our morning and afternoon snack, especially with our own Little Earth bread which is made daily by the children. We thought of how we can use our garden greens for our own spread. With so much parsley and coriander in our garden, pesto was the natural answer.
Pound the sunflower seeds.
By becoming involved in the seasonal cycles of planting, growing, harvesting, and eating and sharing the food grown in our organic garden, the children are appreciating and developing an understanding of the natural world. Engaging our children in practices, projects and ways of working that lead to a more sustainable future helps them to develop an understanding they have a shared responsibility for the environment and humanity and that we all play a part in the web of life.
- Anja
This is how we make our own pesto.
Ingredients: a dash of salt, olive oil, cheese, sunflower seeds and coriander or parsley.
Gather coriander and parsley, sometimes peas, from the garden.
Then wash and stem them.
Feed the stalks to the guinea pigs.
Grate the cheese.
Pound the sunflower seeds.
Then add the oil, leaves, cheese, and a dash of salt.
Pound the ingredients together until the mixture is fine.
Delicious!
By becoming involved in the seasonal cycles of planting, growing, harvesting, and eating and sharing the food grown in our organic garden, the children are appreciating and developing an understanding of the natural world. Engaging our children in practices, projects and ways of working that lead to a more sustainable future helps them to develop an understanding they have a shared responsibility for the environment and humanity and that we all play a part in the web of life.
- Anja
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