On 21 April, our centre celebrated Earth Day one day ahead of the actual day via Zoom with the residents at All Saints Home. Through songs, music and movements related to saving the earth, the residents and our young children were united in a mutual desire to save resources, love and protect the earth.
As our children will be the ones to inherit the earth, we need to raise an awareness for environmental sustainability with lessons learnt from the book “All the water is mine” by Adeline Foo and dramatisation of the characters in the story.
After our centre had created an environment that encouraged children to show care and respect for people who were different from them, teachers engaged the children with a show and tell session for them to talk about what they saw, thought and felt about their experiences.
By sharing our celebration with the residents there, we aimed to foster a good inter-generational relationship between young children and the elderly. Through the celebration, we also hope to create an opportunity for children to interact with other adults in the community.
Before the celebration, our centre had sought parental involvement to work with their children to create a plastic bottle basket to promote the 3Rs (reduce, reuse and recycle). Parents were invited to contribute food items such as cream crackers, Ensure milk and sachets such as coffee 2 in 1 or Milo to be placed in these plastic bottle baskets to be presented to the residents. The basket would act as a reminder for both the children and the residents to work towards environmental sustainability. By engaging families to work with their children, the centre strived to work towards building a meaningful partnership.
In addition to the baskets, children also used plastic bottles to DIY plastic bottle apples which were decorated and lit with a rechargeable light bulb.
By involving all the children in the centre, from as young as the infants to the K2s to celebrate together, the centre strived to start the children young to inculcate good values such as graciousness, kindness and consideration for diversity in people and the environment.
When families and school are equal partners in decisions in the centre’s practices and programmes, families and school staff will be able to collaborate with community members to connect children, families and staff to expanded learning opportunities and community services.
