Every Day is Earth Day in the Kindergarten program with the children always aware of their impact on the planet we call home and their kindheartedness towards the natural world. I wasn’t surprised when the snow melted and the children began to notice the garbage on the ground and in the forest we love so much. I can’t count the times I heard the children say “We really need to pick up this garbage” or “We should clean up this mess so the forest won’t get sick”. We all agreed that Earth Day would be the perfect day to give back to the forest by cleaning it up.
As the conversation about this began (many weeks ago) so did our thinking about ways to celebrate Earth Day outside of just one single day. We had been gifted a giant bouquet of flowers from a family and we wondered how we could use them so they could be used again. We decided to press the flowers while we figured out how we may use them. The children learned how to use the flower presses and also how to use heavy books and wax paper to press even more. We all worked together until every flower was safely tucked into a book or press and placed out of the way to let time work its magic. We knew that this could take a couple of weeks so we decided to think of other ways to celebrate our earth while we waited.
We had been rooting and planting and caring for baby spider plants from our classroom plants and some of them recalled selling the plants to family members last year. We raised quite a bit of money for Living Green Barrie and also planted a tree in our yard. We wondered what helpful thing we could do for nature with another plant sale this year. I offered the children an opportunity to help feed animals at a sanctuary called Speaking of Wildlife, where they care for many animals who will live in captivity for the remainder of their lives for various reasons. The children lit up at the prospect of being able to help an animal! We voted on the type of animal we hoped to help and decided on two! The children chose a Wood Turtle (which is an endangered species) named Burnaby as well as a Grey Wolf. This meant we would need to raise one hundred dollars! We got to work making sure we had plenty of plants ready to sell and the children even created beautiful pot covers featuring all kinds of nature artwork and the words “Thank You” on each. Our plant sale was a HUGE success! You can imagine how excited and proud the children felt when I got to share the news with them that they had indeed raised enough money to help both Burnaby the Wood Turtle and a Grey Wolf! A whole new energy took hold of the class!
In between selling plants and planning to help these two animals, the class was abuzz with the idea we had come up with for our pressed flowers. We had spent loads of time talking about the ways we are kind to nature and what part of nature we are most grateful for. These conversations had us feeling very thoughtful about our genuine love of the natural world and proud of the way we see and care for it. I offered the idea of using our pressed flowers to make candle holders for Earth Day and the children thought this could be a fun new project to try. First, we needed glass jars so we asked each family to bring in a jar for the cause but we didn’t tell them what the end product would be. We were really delighted to have the opportunity to offer a true surprise from us to our families. We talked about how reusing a jar uses fewer resources than recycling it and we learned about how making something new with it is called repurposing. Over the course of a few weeks, the children used “runny glue” to paste their chosen flowers and leaves onto their jars, taking time to let them dry between coats of glue. We tested out the jars by adding some fairy lights and we were all shocked at just how magical each unique creation had turned out. Were we ever proud of our hard work! We finished off our masterpieces with handcrafted tags we created by reusing some cardboard that had been donated to us and some natural twine that we cut and tied ourselves.
While we anxiously awaited Earth Day, the children each made a commitment to nature. They chose something that they can do to help keep the earth healthy before drawing their commitment on paper for all to see. I’m beyond touched by seeing and hearing the ideas and intentions they have about helping our planet. We talked a lot about how seemingly small acts and single ideas can grow to influence gigantic changes. I’m so proud of the care the kindergarten children have and display for the natural world and the ways I see them advocating for the Earth.
When Earth Day finally arrived, we had shared so much excitement about being so helpful to the planet and we COULD NOT WAIT to help the forest we are so fond of. The children were beyond eager to clean up the garbage we had found and “stop the forest from getting sick”. They made joyful work of the task and I couldn’t help but notice their gentleness with new plants, flowers and trees that are growing. They were so determined to remove every piece of trash they could see but they crawled, tiptoed, ducked and gently moved branches in order to be sure their helping wasn’t accidentally hurting nature. I don’t know that anyone can imagine how truly special seeing something like that is unless they have the privilege of seeing it with their own eyes. We managed to remove a big bag of garbage and a half bag of recycling (of course we sorted it all) and felt really empowered by this act of kindness we had been planning for months.
Back at the centre, we got to see pictures of and learn a bit about Burnaby the Wood Turtle and Maverick the Grey Wolf! We naturally welcomed them as new friends and we look forward to learning with and from them together in the weeks ahead. There is always a lot of “Wonder” when it comes to our learning journey together in kindergarten.
We finished our Earth Day Celebration together by creating an Earth Day Art Gallery as a means of showing the many magical ways we care for, help and treasure nature. The children hung a beautiful display of their artwork in many forms and we added fairy lights to our finished jars. More Magic! The whimsical, playful display was a perfect representation of how we, in kindergarten, bring imagination, excitement and joy into our commitments and responsibilities for nature and each other. As an educator, it has been pretty wonderful to witness the genuine pride the children have in their work for the earth. It is such a wonderful opportunity to watch their confidence in their abilities grow and to see the realization in their faces as they recognize what a positive impact their efforts have on the things they truly care about. By the way, we are also REALLY great at surprises. The children managed to surprise each of their families with their beautiful candle holders on Earth Day. They sure felt good about that too!
