The sustainable kindergarten
initiative: an EfS
learning story
– by Paralowie Kindergarten
Paralowie Kindergarten is situated in the suburb of
Paralowie in the Salisbury local government area. It is
located on the corner of a park, which surrounds the
former Paralowie Sports Association oval.
The community includes dual and single income families
and parents, families receiving government assistance and
new arrivals. It is culturally diverse with families from
Aboriginal, Spanish, Chinese, Vietnamese, Cambodian,
Indian, Polish and Serbian backgrounds.
The centre has a strong focus on sustainability,
multiliteracies, comprehension and inquiry based learning.
Staff attend ongoing training in Information and
Communication Technology, sustainable practices and
learning through play and inquiry in both the inside and
outside environment.
Our vision and values for a more sustainable world
In 2011 as a staff team, we focussed on the quality and
content of our Indigenous education and how we could
connect this to learning about sustainability.
Local issues seemed to highlight a need to build
community ownership of the kindergarten. One of our first
steps was to collaboratively update our value statement.
Children ready for gardening
Our sustainability initiative
Our sustainable kindergarten initiative is reinforced by the
Early Years Learning framework (EYLf) 2009 and the
Australian Curriculum (AC) 2011 which have a strong focus
on sustainability.
For example, EYLf - Outcome 2: Children are connected
with and contribute to their world. When educators create
environments in which children experience mutually
enjoyable, caring and respectful relationships with people
and the environment, children respond accordingly.
When children participate collaboratively in everyday
routines, events and experiences and have opportunities to
contribute to decisions, they learn to live interdependently.
We value a sustainable community that develops respect
for each other and our environment and that is
aesthetically pleasing.
Children’s connectedness and different ways of belonging
with people, country and communities helps them to learn
ways of being which reflect the values, traditions and
practices of their families and communities. Over time this
learning transforms the ways they interact with others.
In 2013 we set out to create a learning culture for change
to reflect our values statement:
AC, cross-curriculum priority, Sustainability - addresses the
ongoing capacity of Earth to maintain all life.
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A culture where sustainable practices are
embedded in our daily kindergarten routines and
activities.
A culture that supports children and families to
understand the need for sustainable practices at
kindergarten, at home and in the community.
A culture that encourages every member of our
community to reduce, reuse, recycle and rethink.
A culture in which the community understands,
recognises and respects the Kaurna people and
their connection to land.
The initiative is supported by staff and families. Staff
members have attended numerous professional
development sessions to better understand education for
sustainability run by NRM Education, KESAB and other
bodies.
The children have learned songs, read books, investigated
websites, watched educational videos (e.g. ABC - Dirt Girl),
discussed, drawn and played games that build
understanding about sustainable practices in a number of
themes.
Resource management
Gardening
Lunch and snack wrappers and containers are sorted,
washed and reused; families are encouraged to use
containers that can either be reused or recycled; scrap
paper is put into the recycling bins; boxes, cards, bottle
tops and other reusables are utilised in craft activities.
We established three raised vegetables garden beds. The
children helped with the initial set up of the beds - they
moved straw and soil, added compost and then discussed
which vegetables they would like to grow. We then worked
as a team to plant seedlings and seeds.
We ask families to bring in boxes rather than throw them
away. We arrange an annual visit from Northern Area
Waste Management to further develop children’s
understanding of where the bins go and what happens to
their contents.
The children all work to care for the growing vegetables
with watering and weeding. Our latest crop of vegetables
has just been planted based on the story Growing
vegetable soup by Lois Ehlert. The children are excited at
the prospect of harvesting, cooking and eating their
produce. The children are able to eat the mulberries
straight from the tree and we have used them in cooking
activities.
Colour coded bins have been purchased and are utilised in
the kindergarten and playgroup, as well as in the lunch
area.
Containers with a 10 cent deposit are collected, taken to
the recycling centre and the profit used to buy new
resources. We save paper (and therefore trees) by drawing
on both sides of the page.
We established a worm farm and learnt about which food
scraps are suitable for the worms to eat. We use the water
and castings from the worm farm to fertilise the
vegetables. The children help feed and care for the worms.
We often see the children picking up sticks or offering to
sweep up fallen leaves. They know that these can be
composted and will eagerly tip their buckets into the big
green bin. When our compost area is established the green
waste will go there instead.
The children are learning about the creatures we find in the
garden and caring for our kindy pets. One child has been
observed carefully moving snails off the path and others
filling the bird bath with their watering cans on a hot day.
The Living Eggs program showed children the life cycle of
animals and built understanding of the interdependence
between living things.
Energy
We save electricity by celebrating Earth Day and by turning
off lights during the brightest part of the day and when
most of the children are outside.
Water
We save water by watering with cans and drippers as much
as possible. The children pour any water they haven’t drunk
onto the vegetables or other plants rather than down the
drain.
We have water saving taps in the children’s bathroom and
are in the process of installing these in the garden for the
children to access. In the summer of 2014 we started to
use water from the rainwater tank to water the garden.
Social/cultural
Children working in the garden
We hosted a cultural food day, supporting the Universal
Children’s Day project to establish wells in Sri Lanka. This
fosters children’s understanding about global sustainability
and the need for communities to support each other.
This was well attended by families who each bought a dish
from their culture to share with the kindergarten
community.
Ongoing information about sustainable practices at the
kindergarten is shared with families through newsletters,
photographs and samples of work and is recorded in a big
book which is always available for visitors to see.
Outcomes
Recent reflection on our progress in this project has
demonstrated that these practices have become
embedded in our daily activities.
We see evidence that the children understand in so many
ways, for example they talk to each other about sustainable
practices. They remind each other about reusing lunch
wrappers, or what to put in the bin for composting. They
use the words from our Kaurna acknowledgement as they
discuss the ways in which we can ‘care for our land and the
animals’.
A survey was recently sent home to families to discover
which sustainable practices they follow at home. The survey
covered areas such as recycling, energy and water saving,
composting, chooks or worms, and walking versus driving.
The response to this survey demonstrated the level of
interest that families have in the project, with the highest
percentage of questionnaires returned in five years!
The results of the survey are interesting and give us
opportunities for follow up work on a variety of topics.
Most importantly, as we now know what families are doing
at home, we will be able to give children the chance to be
‘experts’ in the field, as they teach us about their chickens
or their compost heap.
Enjoying the natural challenges
Three large Sheoak trees were removed as they prevent
other plants from germinating in the area. We have kept
much of the wood to use in the new garden layout and in
other areas of the garden.
Sustainability is a long-term focus for the kindergarten. We
have plans to install skylights to the main building and
hope to eventually have solar panels on the roof. We have
learnt so much through this initiative; as a staff team, with
the children and with the wider community. This initiative
supports all curriculum areas and learning styles and allows
the children to be actively engaged in their own learning in
an environment that is both supportive and challenging!
Next steps
With the support of NRM Education our Site Environment
Management Plan has now been developed. This will help
focus our plans and support us to apply for grants to fund
different projects.
We applied for an NRM Action grant in the current round
to support the development of a Kaurna garden on the
eastern side of the site. This garden will be based on an
Aboriginal painting done by one of our parents. The
painting depicts ‘A Children’s Meeting Place’; the design
will be used as the ‘floor plan’ for the garden.
We have been working in conjunction with the City of
Salisbury and NRM Education to plan the project and to
choose indigenous plants that will be suitable for the
kindergarten i.e. plants that are hardy and need limited
water. Part of this new garden will contain a composting
area and another rainwater tank to collect water from the
roof of the big shed.
A space for reflection
For more information
Name: Lisa Jackson
Email: Lisa.Jackson892@schools.sa.edu.au
Website: www.paralowiekgn.sa.edu.au/
For similar case studies –by NRM Education:
www.naturalresources.sa.gov.au
/adelaidemtloftyranges/