Inspired by one of his books, Joe manages to find a tiny apple pip, plants it in a pot on his balcony, and carefully waters it.
Title: The Extraordinary Gardener
Author: Sam Boughton
Illustrator: Sam Boughton
Publisher: Tate Publishing
Publication Date: 2020
ISBN: 978-1849766890
Title: Living Green and the Smoke
Author: Florian Bushy
Illustrator: Florian Bushy
Publisher: Independently published
Publication Date: 2022
ISBN: 979-8408393039
A story about air pollution, global warming and teamwork.
Emergent learning:
It is important that we don’t just talk about this topic we do something about it. We clean things up together, we take pride in doing it and celebrate our own, and the achievements of others in this area. We must show the children that we care. Children all over the world will be engaged in sustainable projects on Earth Day. Below you will find a link to the Earth day website and if you are planning a project you can post details on the site so that children around the world can see what you are doing. This is important, if children learn about the efforts being made by children in other countries it will help foster co-operation and undermine prejudices. It requires international co-operation and collaboration to solve the problems of climate change. In cities in many countries there are air quality monitoring systems to warn the public of the dangers to health, and in teaching our children about these common problems and experiences and our efforts to solve them, we contribute towards the development of a more collaborative world in the future. Our treatment of problems that are concerned with our Social and Cultural Environment require a similar approach to the natural environment.
Activity recommendation:
Wiping a roadside street sign with a white cloth will identify the effects of vehicle exhausts which can also be observed from tailpipes, and engaging thechildren in filtering dirty water in tissues will show the particulates. Activities associated with hygiene and hand washing are relevant. If you put celery in coloured water this can demonstrate how pollution affects plants. The colour traveling up the stalk provides an illustration for the effect of a pollutant. Children can be engaged in street, countryside and beach Litter Picking activities. Where these involve the wider community the children learn more about solidarity and civic responsibility as well. Visits to public waste and recycling centres may be instructive
Other book recommendations:
Title: A Story of Chimneys
Author: Liu Xugong
Illustrator:
Publisher: Hebei Education Press
Publication Date: 2021
ISBN: 978-7554567395
A Chinese Text about the pollution created by power plant and factories.
Title: Miss Leoparda
Author: Natalia Shaloshvili
Translator: Lena Traer
Publisher: Enchanted Lion Books
Publication Date: 2024
ISBN: 978-1592704125
“An ecologically minded book about a bus-loving, tree-loving, leopard”.
Emergent learning:
It might be assumed that sustainable transportation is too difficult a concept for young children to understand. But they can learn about different forms of transportation, and they can learn about sharing, and about waste, so from an emergent curriculum perspective, we provide children with the knowledge and experiences that they will be able to pull together later in their minds, to make the concept meaningful.
We can observe the progression young children make in their learning and development when we look at the increasingly sophisticated activities that they engage in during their free play. Piaget called these activities ‘sensory motor schemes’, and there have been many books written about how adults can encourage and develop them further.
Transportation has been identified as a particularly common scheme that children discover and find fascinating in their play. We provide more explore the idea of schemes further on our online page.
Activity recommendation:
One of the earliest Schemes that you will see children aged 2 to 4 spontaneously playing is “Containing” they often spend extended periods of time putting things into containers and then taking (dropping or pouring) them out again. If you give them the opportunity they will put themselves into containers too. It’s a fascinating new accomplishment for them. Another very early scheme involves following ‘Trajectories’ – This may involve throwing or dropping things, rolling things along the floor or drawing/painting lines. When these two schemes come together in a child’s pre-verbal conception of ‘Transporting’, it involves them putting things into a container and transporting it across a trajectory. They may be using a shopping bag, a baby stroller, a wheelbarrow or a toy truck, but once discovered, they find this combined scheme fascinating, and educators who observe the scheme can support the learning by giving them ever more varied resources to transport and to transport things in. Most young children can be observed taking this strong interest in transporting at some point in their free play between the ages of three and five, and this provides us with an especially rich opportunity to talk about sustainable and efficient transport alternatives and about sharing public transport.
A child’s ‘Rotation’ scheme, often evident in their fascination with wheels provides another way into the transportation topic.
Other book recommendations:
Title: SAY Something
Author: Peter Reynolds
Illustrator: Alison Jay
Publisher: Orchard Books
Publication Date: 2019
ISBN: 978-0545865036
A book that encourages children to find their own voice – through words, art, actions, or simple acts of kindness.
Emergent learning:
Climate Change Action requires international solidarity, co-operation and collaboration which in turn requires humility and mutual respect. No individual, and no nation, can achieve what is required to save the planet on their own, and yet we live in a world where historical conflicts and competition have often encouraged the development of prejudices and mistrust.
To some extent concerns about people we are less familiar with might be considered inevitable, from their very first weeks baby’s develop attachment to the familiar faces and sounds that they have heard from their parents and primary carers. These attachments are important, but in the absence of any experience of alternative skin colours and languages, prejudiced ideas may later come to be uncritically accepted. That is why most nurseries encourage children to play with dolls that have different skin colours. Picture story books showing the common concerns of people and children from around the world can also provide an important contribution, and in early childhood Language Awareness Education also has a major contribution to make.
Activity recommendation:
A recurring theme throughout all of these episodes has been the importance of involving the children in sustainable practices. If we are concerned to provide the foundations for our sustainable citizens of the future, we must encourage sustainable habitual actions, and habits of mind. Where we share sustainable activities with the children they benefit doubly, because they can see that the significant adult role models in their lives also consider them important.
Growing food, herbs and flowers for a purpose is a wonderfully sustainable, and fulfilling activity for children and colleagues to engage in and there are a wide range of different gardening activities that can be implemented in nurseries, schools and homes. Even more importantly the child will come to recognise their own agency, their ability to change and make the world a better more sustainable place which will have long lasting benefits when they come later to bring up children of their own.
As an educational subject, Design and Technology education also has a role to play. It involves children in designing, making and evaluating products out of resistant materials, adding value and creating food products, and considerations of conservation and nutrition.
Technology and its products are shaped by, but also serves to shape society, our behaviours, institutions and relationships. Education for citizenship must aim to develop technological awareness, so that our children grow up to be sensitive to the social and cultural implications of technology and their role as critical consumers and creators.
Bilingual Picture Story Books and Videos may be especially valuable in supporting children’s emergent language awareness. A familiar story heard initially in the child’s mother tongue will be recognised when presented in a different language. Children are often delighted to discover the cleverness of other languages.
Other Book recommendations:
Recommendation reason:
Title: The Doorbell Rang
Author: Pat Hutchins
Illustrator:
Publisher: Greenwillow
Publication Date: 2086
ISBN: 978-0688052522
A fun book about sharing and friendship that also supports emergent numeracy.
Emergent learning:
The economic benefits of sharing are obvious, and if we are no longer using something it costs us nothing to give it to someone who will use it. There are also many social and emotional learning benefits that can be gained through children sharing, they learn to build and maintain friendships, they develop patience and empathy, how to cooperate, and how to manage their emotions.
Preschools often organise toy and book sharing libraries and the best of these projects involve the children at every stage of their planning and execution. Extensions of this involve the sharing of outgrown school uniforms, children’s clothing, and car sharing in the transportation to and from the preschool. All of these things can operate at any level, between individual families or whole communities.
Activity recommendation:
When we are working with children in fund raising for good causes, as adults it is important for us to recognize that there can sometimes be a downside to giving simple charity: At its worse it can encourage false notions of superiority in the donors, and of dependence for recipients. One of the best ways to avoid that is to encourage exchange, to provide practical rather than financial support, or to provide groups or individuals with reduced interest or interest free loans that support their own efforts. This way we can empower individuals and groups to become more self reliant and sustainable. Examples include the development of mutual aid projects, community gardens, and micro-finance initiatives.
The OMEP-UK Early Childhood Education for Sustainable Citizenship Award: A Call for Partnerships – John Siraj-Blatchford – OMEP
Global Partnership Strategy for early c…od, 2021-2030 – UNESCO Digital Library
Other Book Recommendations:
Recommendation reason:
Title: The House Full of Stuff
Author: Emily Rand
Illustrator: Emily Rand
Publisher: Tate Publishing
Publication Date: 2019
ISBN: 978-1849766623
A boy befriends a neighbour who loves collecting useful junk that he uses to fix and mend things with.
Emergent learning:
Sustainable consumption requires the use and purchase of products and services that minimise the impact on the environment. As we make these decisions as adults we can share our successes and frustrations with our children so that they become critical sustainable consumers themselves in the future. To do this we need to share and review product information.
One of the things we are up against is ‘planned obsolescence’. As informed consumers we can exert our purchase power to discourage manufacturers building in early obsolescence, and we can campaign for more sustainable alternatives. Products are sometimes deliberately designed to have a limited lifespan to encourage us to make repeat purchases, but this can only increase a producers profits if we continue to buy the products. Examples include the design of products that make repairs difficult or impossible, the release of software updates that reduce the speed or functionality of older devices, and the ‘smart chips’ introduced into ink cartridges to prevent their use after a certain period or page count.
Activity recommendation:
In our preschools and at home we can share the task of making repairs – to our story books , toys and resources with the children, and we can draw their attention to the work of caretakers and other maintenance staff who care for our shared buildings, furnishings and fittings.
Popular TV series such as The Repair Shop have encouraged the development of a wide range of community repair ‘cafes’ networks and services where volunteers take pride in bringing things back to life. Community repair projects are increasingly creating welcoming spaces to bring people together, share skills and do something positive and practical together that feels really worthwhile and good!
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08l581p
Other Book Recommendations:
Recommendation reason:
Title: The Tale of a Toothbrush: A Story of Plastic in our Oceans
Author: M. Leonard
Illustrator: Daniel Rieley
Publisher: Walker Books
Publication Date: 2020
ISBN: 978-1406391817
What happens to all our toothbrushes when they’re no longer needed? What can we do about it? What happens to other forms of Plastic Pollution?
Emergent learning:
When an item is ‘Reused’ it often doesn’t change its original form or use – as is the case of items that are upcycled or recycled. Reuse aims to extend an unwanted products life. Often this entails finding an alternative user for items such as scrap paper, packaging, furniture or clothing.
Disposal is the opposite of reuse, and children can learn to recognise, and even campaign against the use of disposable products such as gift wrappings, plastic cups and cutlery, paper towels and dishcloths. Many of the alternatives such as Furoshiki Wrapping Cloths, the use of your own chop sticks or multi-use drink containers are recognised as increasingly fashionable, and they make a personal statement of good taste and values.
Activity recommendation:
Children can be involved in reusing kitchen cans and jars for storage, cutting up old fabrics for cleaning, or using coffee grounds as fertilizer. Another valuable activity is to involve them in surveying your waste. Randomly emptying and sorting out the contents of your waste bin to see what might be reduced, reused, and recycled. An old toothbrush might, in the process, find a new life as a dolls hairbrush, for shoe cleaning or even as a paint brush.
Other Book recommendations:
Recommendation reason:
Title: Precious Waste
Author: Neil Griffiths
Illustrator: Annette Louden
Publisher: Red Robin Books
Publication Date: 2016
ISBN: 978-1904949152
“Refuse collector Ryan goes on a mission to change the mindset of the locals about recycling their rubbish and waste”.
Emergent learning:
Recycling is all about conserving the materials something is made from, so that it can be used to make something new.
Upcycling is completely different from recycling. It is all about taking an item that would otherwise be waste and improving it in some way to make it useful again. A plastic bottle, for example, can be transformed into a face visor for a space suit, a plant pot, a watering can, or a bird feeder. Upcycling is highly creative, and the only limits are our imagination and our skills.
Recycling activities encourage economy and as they involve the children in sorting, this helps them develop their early number skills. They also learn about materials which is valuable in terms of early learning in science and design and technology.
Activity recommendation:
Upcyling activities support and encourage children’s creativity. A simple bird feeder may be improvised using a plastic bottle cut with feed holes and sticks positioned to provide a perch. Having introduced the basic idea children can be encouraged to observe their feeder in action and develop modifications for improvement. The choice of food itself is also a ‘food design and technology’ activity, and
We often use Upcyling examples from the preschools of poor countries because they provide powerful illustrations of clever and creative innovations that children can learn to respect and admire. One popular example is the “Tippy Tap” often found in rural preschools in Africa where there is no piped running water for toilets and sanitation. To make your own, all you need is a plastic (e.g. milk/squash) bottle that you suspend with string from its handle, another string is tied between a stick on the ground and the spout so that when you put your foot on the ‘pedal’ it pours the water. You will see a picture on our web page and you will find it’s a good way of conserving water and providing hygiene in your garden and other outside play areas.
Other Book recommendations:
Key idea: Resources are essential and at the same time scarce – e.g. Identifying the difference between needs and wants and the importance of sharing (UC5.1).
Key idea: Material possessions do not bring a lifetime of happiness – e.g. Making lists of needs and wants, learning about over-consumption. Playing with upcycled, and recycled toys and materials (UC6.3).
Title: I like Bees, I don’t like Honey!
Author: Sam Bishop
Illustrator: Fiona Lumbers
Publisher: Faber & Faber
Publication Date: 2017
ISBN: 978-0571334193
Encourages children to gain confidence in expressing their feelings, talking about individuality and respect for differences.
Emergent learning:
It is crucially important for us to support our children in differentiating between their Needs, and their Wants and Desires.
Nature demands that all living creatures economise. People often think of the word ECONOMY as a noun, the news reports are constantly worrying us about the state of the economy and our national wealth. But ECONOMY is much more importantly a verb – it is something we have to DO – nature demands that all living creatures must economise. Whether we are human, fish, animal or plant, if we consume all our nourishment, if we destroy our environment – we will perish. Humanity has infinite wants and desires, but we have finite resources, there are limitations to food, clean air, water, and energy.
Activity recommendation:
Around the World, parents and early childhood educators often talk about the 6 – 9 R’s of sustainable economy: Reduce (use less), Refuse (if you have had enough), Repair (rather than Replace with new), Reuse, Repurpose and Recycle . Sometimes another R – to Rethink (outside the box) is included and Rot may also be included in recognition that composing is so important, and land fill waste disposal so damaging. These R’s of sustainability provide us with a checklist of crucially important activities that we can draw our children’s attention to, and engage with them in carrying out.
In extension to this we can usefully take the opportunity, when appropriate, to critically differentiate between what is often seen as the self-evident relationship between Technology and Progress:
Which is …the best Technology?
An aircraft that knocked 200 minutes off the time it took to transport 100 people from London to New York (Cost: £20 Million+)?
…Or a bicycle that knocked 200 minutes off the time it took to transport a day’s supply of clean water to a village (Cost: £40)?
Ref. Siraj-Blatchford, J (2008) The implications of early understandings of inequality, science and technology for the development of sustainable societies Samuelsson, I and Kaga, Y (Eds), The contribution of early childhood education to a sustainable society. Paris: UNESCO
Book recommendation:
Title: Green Green: A Community Gardening Story
Author: Marie & Baldev Lamba
Illustrator: Sonia Sanchez
Publisher: Macmillan Pub.
Publication Date: 2022
ISBN: 978-1250858535
Children inspire the community to join together and build a garden for everyone to share in the middle of the city.
Emergent learning:
Education for sustainable citizenship is all about supporting your child in seeing themselves as a responsible member of the community, its about supporting them in adopting a positive self identity as a citizen. It is all to easy to focus on the limitations and mistakes of local government and to take achievements for granted. Having a voice and a vote is itself worthy of celebration, and it is important to remember that even the smallest sustainable developments today may provide the foundations for greater progress in the future.
If we are to encourage our children to become sustainable citizens them we must show them the pride that we take in the progress that is being made (however modest it may currently be) in all of our communities. So when you are out and about with your child, point out and celebrate your neighbours and community use of renewable energies, conservation and environmental protection, the evidence of recycling, most importantly the evidence that people CARE.
Activity recommendation:
Every year the United Nations create focused days of action and celebration for a wider range of themes associated with Climate Change, Biodiversity, and Sustainable Development. You can plan your own community activity in schools, preschools or at home. Most of the UN dedicated pages provide a means by which these activities can be shared and celebrated around the world. In September on the 20th there is “World Clean Up day”. 16th October is “World Food Day”, and 26th November “World Sustainable Transport Day”. You will find a page providing the full list of UN on our web page. https://www.un.org/en/observances/list-days-weeks
Other Book recommendations:
