Paper to Paper

We have a lot of paper waste. What shall we do with it all? Let’s make paper!

Paper is one of the most versatile products of modern mankind.  In the very old days, paper was made from rags and vegetable fibers, extracted from hemp, bamboo, willow etc.  Today paper is primarily produced from wood.  We use hundreds of  millions of tonnes of paper each year, resulting in  billions of trees cut down and tonnes of paper waste in landfills. 

As an Enviroschool, at both our preschools we “nurture Nature and People and the whole school environment is a learning resource”.  In practice that means that our programme focuses on giving children access to activities that reflect an ecological approach and a positive belief in the future. We aim to practice sustainable practices where possible.  With all that paper waste it means we have to act! 

At both Tawa Montessori Preschool and at Little Earth we have a system where we collect paper waste and use it to make new paper.  The paper waste we collect is soaked in water and every week we make a batch of pulp.  This way we can make our own paper every day.

The paper making activity is set up so that the children at our preschool can do this independently, at any time of the day.  The only time an adult is needed is when we make the pulp as it involves the use of a blender. The pulp is stored in a sealed container in the fridge for daily use throughout the week. We made the frames ourselves, using fly screen from the diy shop, and the tray is an enamel oven dish.

Here are the steps we use to make our own paper:

Materials: tray, jug for water, pulp, frame, frame with mesh, towel



To make the pulp:
- Rip paper into tiny pieces.
- Add water and soak for a few days.
- Put soaked paper into a blender with a little extra water and blend to a pulp.
- Tip pulp into a container and store in fridge.



To make the paper:
- Tip some pulp in the tray, if needed, ad some water
- Submerge frame into the tray.  Gently get an even coverage of pulp over the mesh in the frame.
- Lift frame out of the water.



- Gently dry with a towel.
- Remove top frame to reveal paper!



- Carefully turn paper out on to another dry towel.
- Wait to dry!

We have been making paper daily for nearly two years now. We use this paper for cutting, glueing, wrapping, drawing, and lots of other activities in the classroom. We have even used it to make our own seedling pots.

- Anja

Letting go - making a mindshift

We know that for a lot of our tamariki leaving something behind is very difficult.  We have seen their discomfort with leaving their clothing, boots, or slippers behind at preschool or when some other treasured possession has been left at home. 

One of our tamariki arrived at Little Earth wanting to show us his tiger worms he had found. His mother had commented to him that they wouldn’t be happy staying in the bug catcher for long so maybe he could find a new home for them at preschool. However, after arriving at preschool, our young friend said that he wanted to take them home.

After showing his friends we suggested he could transfer the worms to our worm bin.  But no, he had different plans, “I’ll put them in my cubby”, he replied. His friends pointed out to him that the worms didn’t have much dirt in the bug catcher, and where was their food?  Our young friend found a quiet space in our window seat and looked at the worms, obviously thinking of all of this.

After a few minutes he came up to us. “My worms are sad now”.  “I wonder why they are sad”, we said, and he told us, “They don’t have enough dirt.  They don’t have food”.  So we asked him, “What would you like to do with them”?  He pointed to the worm bin - “In there”. 

We all joined watching our friend as he transferred the worms from his bug catcher to the worm bin.  We could see he was still feeling anxious about his decision.  We were all so impressed by his choice to put the care of the worms ahead of his own feelings of wanting to hold onto a belonging of his. 

At our preschools, our goal is to not just offer some activities promoting sustainability but to actually help our children and families make a ‘mind-shift’ into more sustainable thinking.  We want the idea of caring for the Earth to be so embedded that conscious choices are made.  The decision to offer the worms a more suitable home is such a wonderful example of informed decision making and is a really exciting part of our children’s journey and growth. The Earth really is a great Teacher!

- Anja

Care and compassion, we are all part of the web of life

 "He nohonga ngātahitanga ahau me te taiāo"

 - We live as one with our natural world -

Kaitiakitanga is the practice of looking after something, just as Tane, in Maori legends, looks after the forest and Tangaroa and Hinemoa look after the oceans.  We have been working with our tamariki to get them to understand that to take responsibility for our environment we need to be caring.

At our preschools we help our children to look after their relationships, not only with the environment, but also with each other, and their place within.  Our aim is to bring harmony and well being to all involved. After all, we are all part of the web of life.  It is important to explore these relationships, to introduce the children to the concept that everything is connected and inter-related, whanaungatanga and whakapapa.  We have a past and a future and our choices and actions make a difference.  We show our tamariki how to be respectful to all that is around us, kaitiakitanga, that we are part of a community and act in harmony with nature.

One means of doing so is the garden at both our preschools.  The garden provides our children with many opportunities to cultivate their curiosity about nature and gives them a sense of community and responsibility.  In the garden, children see and experience how their actions either help or harm the environment.  It nurtures their aroha, a feeling of love for the natural world, and of the urge to protect or take care of it, manaaki.  These are important values we'd like to instill in our children as our future guardians.  Aroha is more than love, it is about compassion for the environment and understanding the environment and our place in that environment, our connection with the natural world.   A connection that, according to Richard Louv in his latest book "The Nature Principle" is fundamental to human health, well-being, spirit, and survival.

Respect, care and compassion underlies all we do at Tawa Montessori Preschool and Little Earth.  This weekend I will be attending The Natural Phenomena, an outdoor nature education early childhood conference in the "Wild Woods" in New Zealand.  I will be presenting a workshop on the interconnectedness and interdependence with the life force of every natural thing and how to introduce our tamariki to care and respect all things and the correct ways to interact with them.  We must care for our natural world, be good guardians or kaitiaki.

If you are attending The Natural Phenomena, come and say hello. 

- Anja

Akonga, a community of learners

Recently we achieved the GREEN GOLD Award from Enviroschools.  Last week we celebrated our GREEN GOLD Enviroschools achievement with a visit from our sister preschool Tawa Montessori Preschool.  Children and families from Tawa Montessori took the train up to Kapiti.  After a “Thread the Earth Lightly” candle walk in Nikau Reserve, and our special forest walk song "Ko Te Ngahere", we had a picnic at Little Earth.   The Enviroschool team send their Green Gold fairy to congratulate us.  The special award and flag was presented to Little Earth by a delegation from the Wellington Regional Council and the Kapiti Coast District Council.

We continue our journey at Little Earth, not only as an Enviroschool but as akonga, a community of learners, children, teachers and parents.  While the children are our stakeholders, we, the adults are their mentors and it is important we not only empower and engage our young children, but also enact.  We know how our planet is in peril, we know we have to make changes to the way we are living. Here, at Little Earth we want to do something about it.  We want to give our children, the stakeholders, the skills and attitudes to grow into global citizens who will act as responsible caretakers.  Nature has no reset button.

Little Earth sparkles with GREEN GOLD! You can read more about our GREEN GOLD award on the Kapiti Independent website.

- Anja

New life in our milk bottles

Our recycled milk bottles at Tawa Montessori have done us well.  It’s been nearly a year now since we first put them up.  They weathered a hot Summer, a wet Autumn and a cold Winter.  Now it is Spring and while the bottles are still in good shape, the plants look a bit sad.  Our new planted pansies are getting a hammering from our chickens who love to dust bath in our flower beds.  We decide that the milk bottles may be a much better home for our pansies.

Take the milk bottles of the shed wall and fill the bottles with new soil.

Get the pansies out of our garden and plant them in the milk bottles.

Water the plants and put a rod through the handles of the bottles to hang.

Fasten the wooden rod to the shed wall and done, they are ready to flower.

Children love working in the garden.  As they plant the flowers, they learn that flowers and plants are delicate and need to be handled with care.  They learn about watering, and the properties of dry and wet soil.  They can admire the instant colour beauty and observe the insects that visit the flowers.  Projects like this are not only a great way to introduce children to gardening, they are also a concrete hands on introduction to sustainability and environmental education.

- Anja

The Natural Phenomena

See you there!

- Anja

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.

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

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.

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!

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.

Coffee grounds fossils

Yesterday I wrote about the Ground to Ground initiative and the reuse of coffee grounds for compost and gardening. Tonnes of used coffee grounds are discarded each day, filling up our landfills. Coffee grounds are a good source of nitrogen for the compost, garden or worm farm and a natural deterrent for snails and slugs. But coffee grounds can also be used as a natural component to make “play dough” at preschool. 

At Little Earth the children are enjoying making their own fossil imprints. We use coffee grounds, collected from BURST Drive-Thru-Cafe.

We mix 1 cup of used coffee grounds, 1/2 cup of water, 1 cup of flour and 1/2 cup of salt together in a large bow.

We roll the mixture out onto a flat surface, over some wax paper. We use a big wooden chopping board.

We use shells, leaves, and even own hands, to make imprints, and allow them to dry overnight.
 

Our coffee ground fossils look very realistic as they look like real rocks when finished!



We are only just starting to explore the many uses of coffee grounds! What ideas for reusing coffee grounds do you have?

- Anja

Ground to Ground

Are you one of these people who needs a cup of coffee first thing in the morning, before you can even start thinking of the day ahead of you?  Or are you one of the many people who simply enjoy the pleasure of drinking a cuppa while catching up with a friend or relative.  Coffee has become one of the most popular beverages in the world with the world coffee consumption said to reach as high as 400 billion coffee cups a year.  As a non coffee drinker I have never thought much about “a good cuppa”, let alone think about the tons of coffee grounds that are produced on a daily basis and dumped in the local landfills.

According to the Ground to Ground initiative, approximately 20 grams of coffee grounds remains every time an espresso machine is used, which is then typically thrown into the bin, and ends up in landfill.  20 grams might not seem like a big amount, until you consider that 5000 lattes work out to about 100 kilos of used grounds, 50,000 lattes work out to about 1 tonne.  Think about the millions of people who stop into cafes or use an espresso machine at home at least once a day.  All those tens of millions of drinks make for many tonnes of landfill each and every day.

At Little Earth we have been learning that plants grow healthy in soil that is rich in nutrients.  We also know that nitrogen and carbon are some nutrients that plants need. When we make our compost we put lots of green matter and brown matter to make a yummy dirt for the plants.  Coffee grounds have a relatively high nitrogen content, making them an excellent “green” addition to the compost bin and a great offset against high carbon ‘brown’ additions such as leaves, straw, and cardboard.  They also happen to act like a slow release fertiliser when put directly into the soil, providing ongoing nitrogen input into the garden.  When applied to the soil coffee grounds will deter snails and slugs, while at the same time attract the very beneficial earthworm who just loves coffee!

What better way to reduce the amount of waste in our landfill and keep our garden healthy at the same time then using coffee grounds in our garden?  Coffee grounds have been used for compost and gardening for many centuries.  Our local coffee shop, BURST Drive-Thru-Café, delivers a bucket full of grounds every week to Little Earth.  The children sprinkle the coffee grounds on our veggie patches to ward of the slugs ad snails.  The leaves of our cauliflowers and cabbages are amazingly looking healthier, and no longer full of holes.  The children also sprinkle coffee around the other plants in the garden and around our native plants up the bank.  We also add coffee grounds to our compost and worm farm. It sure is a lot of fun spreading coffee grounds!

You may wonder why our garden smells like coffee sometimes?

We are learning that coffee ground is a good source of 
nitrogen for our soil.

We are also learning that coffee grounds keep snails and slugs away.

So now we are adding coffee grounds to our compost and garden.

What a great way to recycle coffee grounds and keep our garden healthy! And it is fun too!

Recycling coffee grounds would have to be one of the easiest ways to make a difference.  For more information about used coffee grounds and the Ground to Ground initiative, visit the Ground to Ground website.

Reusing coffee grounds in the garden is just one way of the plenty of usages it can have in a preschool.  More creative ideas about using coffee grounds tomorrow.

- Anja

Screen-free week 2011

At Tawa Montessori Preschool we have a great community of parents who are passionate about the environment our preschoolers live in. This year we are taking part in a screen free week, to be held from the 9th to the 13th of May, organised by one of our parents, Andrea Bubendorfer.

A wealth of research has been carried out on the effects of TV on young children, such as summarised by the American Academy of Pediatrics and by Campaign for a Commercial Free Childhood who run international screen free week (coinciding with our school holidays).

We all know that direct experiences are real and meaningful, multisensory and interactive, and that's something we want for our children. So the children in our class came home with cards to put their ideas forward of things we can do instead of watching TV. They know they can run, jump, hide, play with balls, play games, read books. We plan to organise a set of afternoon activities, we're lucky to live close to parks, libraries, bush reserves, the beach. Maybe we'll even take along some rubbish bags & clean up an area as we go. Our children were so proud of themselves recently for cleaning up neighboroughing Kowhai Park (thanks to the two mums who organised this!).

But it's not always possible for children to spend their time at leisure, life goes on with plenty of things that must be done. Although it's easy to forget when they are hungry, tired and cranky, our kids are incredibly capable. At preschool they routinely harvest vegetables, collect eggs and prepare food... These kids even make their own bread and recycle their own paper - I expect they achieve more than I do!

Preschoolers also learn a lot by mimicry and love to be included, so rather than just the absence of entertainment, I'd like to invite all the parents to think about screen free week while they cook dinner. Perhaps your preschooler could peel a carrot or wash broccoli alongside you. Their sense of achievement as they have contributed meaningfully is better than the highest praise.

In the first week of term, I'll put out a handout on a few ideas that preschoolers love, to keep them busy during busy times. Any ideas or input from the preschool community will be gratefully received.

- Andrea Bubendorfer

A proud Earth Hour Awards finalist

The amazing The Point Preschool in Oyster Bay, NSW, Australia, has a very strong commitment to the environment and education for sustainability.  Children at The Point Preschool look after their own gardens and animals, they learn about environmental health, they compost and recycle, and they grow their own food.  They learn about responsible use of water and energy, about waste reduction, fair trade, and living in peace with each other and nature.  Children at The Point Preschool are actively involved in sustainable practices every day and have every opportunity to connect with the earth.

The children of The Point Preschool and their teachers have been nominated in the top 20 national finalists for the first Australian Earth Hour Awards.  You can vote for The Point Preschool by going to the Earth Hour website and clicking on the picture on the right top row, a picture of the children with a baby possum.

In a time where too many children spend their early childhood years either inside playing with plastic toys or outside in an artificial environment composed of concrete, plastic, steel and rubber, we welcome preschools like The Point Preschool.  A preschool wholeheartedly committed to natural outdoor environments and involving the children in developing lifelong practices to ensure the respect and protection of each other and our planet.  Catherine and her team do an amazing job empowering and engaging sustainable young minds.  Please support the work of Catherine and her team at The Point Preschool and give them your vote.

You can read more about this amazing preschool at The Point Preschool website.

Update 27 March 2011: Congratulations to Catherine Lee who won The People’s Choice Award. The children at The Point Preschool can be very proud. Thank you to all who voted.

- Anja

Authentic experiences, involving the senses

Earlier this week we had the inaugural Nature Action Collaborative for Children (NACC) community forum meeting in Wellington. It was an inspiring evening.

Listening to people talking about experiences in nature that stood out for them made me realise how these  experiences have one thing in common. Usually they are real or very close to real, and they involve the senses. They are more often than not, authentic experiences.

As an early childhood teacher, authentic experiences are one of the core of my practice as I believe authentic experiences provide the real lessons we can learn from. They are meaningful and often purposeful. They teach, rather then entertain.

Our children’s world is inundated with toys, plastic or not, that only simulate or provide fake experiences that are short of purposeful engagement and leave nothing left to the imagination. Children have readily access to virtual worlds where all they have to do is to push a button to reset or restart without any lasting consequences. While many of these games are marketed under the banner “educational”, much can be said about the educational aspect of these games. They certainly do not teach  children to take responsibility nor do they provide crucial real life consequences. If a child doesn’t like the outcome or loses the game, a push of the button provides a new canvas to restart. Reality is that real life does not have reset buttons. It is easy to be a hero in a fake fantasy world, it is another story to show compassion, caring and love in real life. For that to learn, children need authentic experiences, experiences that nurture the heart.

Authentic experiences involve the senses. Many of the experiences in nature or natural outdoor play areas have the potential to be authentic, to be real, to be a first. Children feel the warmth of the sun, hear the singing of the birds, see the beauty of the butterflies, smell the fragrance of the roses, and taste the flavour of the blackberries. When all these senses are involved it increases the likelihood of becoming a memorable experience. Experiences that are enjoyed and remembered, that leave footprints on our children’s hearts, or in the words of Benjamin Zander, create shining eyes.

As teachers we owe it to our children to expose them to authentic, relevant experiences many children are lacking today. Baking our own bread, collecting eggs from the chickens, harvesting our own fruit, making our own paper, these are just a few of the daily experiences we have available for our children at our preschools. Running barefoot through grass, hiding behind a berry bush, jumping in a mud puddle, the ever changing theatre of nature is the ideal environment where children can be active and concrete learners. It is constantly changing, highly attractive and full of beauty. And on top of it all, it is authentic.

- Anja

Join me in connecting our children with nature

Last October I spend an amazing four days at the Working Forum on Nature Education for Young Children at the Arbor Day Farm in Nebraska. This forum was attended by delegates from around the world and I felt privileged to be there. It was inspiring and encouraging to listen and talk to so many people from many different backgrounds, who all share the passion to reconnect our young children with nature.

The purpose of the Working Forum was to nurture the future generations of environmental stewards by creating action plans to reconnect the world's children with nature. During the forum the new Environmental Action Kit was launched. This Kit is available online for free and if you are involved with young children I strongly recommend you have a good look at it. The Kit is full with ideas, recommendations and research. An important section of the Kit is the Tools for Advocacy which includes the Universal Principles for connecting children with nature, developed by The Nature Action Collaborative for Children (NACC). Below is a video about the principles.



At the forum I was a member of the New Zealand team. It is our mission to take back both inspiration and knowledge we gained in Nebraska and to spread the message about the importance of children’s connection with nature. The team has decided to develop community forums in New Zealand, starting with one in Auckland and one in Wellington. The first Auckland meeting took place on Thursday 17 February. The first Wellington meeting is taking place on Monday 28 February.

This is an open invitation to any one who is involved with our young generation, be it as a teacher, professional, or parent, to join us in our global effort to unplug our children and to get them outside to connect with nature. If you can’t make it to the Wellington meeting, but would like to receive more information, email us. If you want to find out more about NACC initiatives in your country, contact your Leadership team member.

- Anja

Our journey at Little Earth (3) - The tribe

Tawa Montessori Preschool is the first early childhood Silver Award Enviroschool in the Wellington region. We are very proud that our new sister school, Little Earth, has joined the list of Silver Enviroschools. Being an Enviroschool and becoming part of their tribe, is an important part of our programme at both our preschools.

The Enviroschools programme is well set out with guiding principles and key areas to support us in our teaching. As an Enviroschool we strive to integrate education for sustainability into the whole school culture, guided by five principles*:

1. Children are empowered to participate in a genuine way from their own unique and creative perspective.

2. Children are engaged in the physical, social, cultural and political aspects of our local and global environment

3. Maori perspectives and knowledge are included in the learning process to offer insights unique to the culture wit the longest history of human interaction with this country.

4. Respect for the diversity of people and cultures is integrated to achieving a sustainable environment in New Zealand - one that is fair, peaceful and co-operative.

5. Children are part of a sustainable community that acts in ways that nurture people and nature, now and in the future.

The purpose of the programme is to integrate sustainability into our whole preschool community. We strive to make sustainability an integral part of what we do throughout our preschool. An important part of this is the involvement of the wider community, parents and whanau who share their knowledge and wisdom. A community which works intergenerational, people teaching and learning together. A place that is participatory, involving the children and engaging them in the daily life of the preschool. Giving the children a sense of purpose, inspiring them to be creative and become competent to make their own decisions.

The Enviroschools programme incorporates four key areas*:

1. People and Participation - Tangata
People work collaboratively, are reflective of our bicultural heritage and the diversity of their community. They ensure that they are all involved in sharing decisions to become confident, connected, actively involved, lifelong learners.

2. Programmes - Kaupapa Ako
Programmes focus on learning about the interaction between people and the environment and developing attitudes and behaviours for a more sustainable future. Through taking action children discover why sustainability matters and how to make sustainability a reality in their school and wider community.

3. Practices - Tikanga
Sustainable practices are part of school culture instigated by children and staff to make a more resilient community for the future.

4. Place - Wahi
A place is created where children and their community work together willingly to reduce their impact on the planet for future generations to enjoy the diverse and beautiful world we live in.

Our local Enviroschools facilitator, with the support of our local green gardener, have supported us greatly with their knowledge and expertise. They have facilitated workshops, huis, and clustermeetings. In our journey of becoming a sustainable preschool community at Little Earth, being part of a tribe like Enviroschools is invaluable.
- Anja

* from Enviroschools handbook 2009 

Links:
-  Our journey at Little Earth (1) - The start 
-  Our journey at Little Earth (2) - The process
-  Our journey at Little Earth (3) - The tribe

Milkbottles and our tin shed wall!

As enviroschools, recycling and re-using is part of what we do on a daily basis. Here is what we did with our empty milk bottles and homegrown seedlings from our potting shed to liven up our tin shed wall at Tawa Montessori ...

* With thanks to Juliet from "I am a teacher, get me OUTSIDE here!" and the Creative Star Learning Company for the idea!

- Anja