Sustainable Practices
                     Sustainable Practices
https://www.giggletree.com.au/
This area was not very big in early childhood before National 
Quality Standards came into place, as it was not really 
covered under the old regulations or under NCAC quality 
areas.  So, we need to start thinking how we can turn our 
centres into more sustainable places.  You might already 
have started putting things into place or have some great 
ideas.  Below are some ideas that can help you brainstorm. 
Recycle your rubbish – A good idea is having different bins for 
different things (e.g a bin for recyclable items boxes, plastic 
containers anything that could be recycled, a bin for food scraps 
and a bin for all other items.) There are many companies out 
there that have child-sized recyle bins that you can have in 
rooms for chlidren and Educators to use. Children can be 
responsible for the recycling program in your room. You may 
choose to keep some items to re-use, such as scrap paper etc, 
and then you can dispose of the other items appropriately.     
Compost bins – start collecting all your food scraps and place in a 
compost bin, make sure you involve the children in this by having a 
container children can put their food scrapes in and get them to 
help fill up the compost bin and explain to them how it works.   
Worm farms – you can place your food scrapes in this and then 
either sell the worm juice to parents or use it on your own gardens.
Vegie Patch – this is a great way to teach children where 
vegetables comes from.  Children can see the whole cycle by 
placing their food scrapes into the compost bin and worm farm 
which then helps their vegetables grow, they can then see how the 
vegetables are then used in cooking.      
Look at the ways you can recycle & conserve energy and water, 
this could be a great discussion with the older groups of children 
that way they have their input also make sure you are involving 
families and all educators in these discussions as well.  From 
these discussions you can create your services environmental 
strategy.  It is vital that you don’t just have the above items just 
sitting there and educators not implementing them and 
embedding it into their program, otherwise it is just a tokenistic 
view on sustainability.
The other area to look at, is when doing activities with children 
and extending their interests use as much natural resources or 
recycled resources that you can.  Below are just a few ideas:- 
Painting Ideas - Instead of painting on paper, collect leaves 
and use them to paint on or use leaves, twigs etc to paint with.  
You could ask parents to see if they can bring in large leaves 
from home.  You could also paint on rocks  
When doing collage you could use a lot of natural resources, or 
make things with these resources like a fairy garden.  How about 
making blocks from driftwood or other wood found in parks.  
This is a great way to get families involved in your programme 
by asking them help you search for wood.   You can use sticks, 
leaves pebbles etc with play dough or clay. 
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Call us - 07 3204 1102
http://giggletree.com.au/