Early Childhood Education for Sustainable Citizenship
i-Care: Bronze Level
-
-
Draw your child's attention to the way that some plants droop when they need water.
-
I care about the plants and can tell when they need watering.
-
Draw your child's attention to the change in trees e.g flowering in the spring, summer fruit, autumn shedding of the leaves and winter dormancy (sleep).
-
I care about the seasons and can tell what season it is by looking at the trees.
-
Support the child in creating model environment for play e.g a pretend farm yard, delivery route, recycling or garden centre.
-
I care about the environment and can tell you the story of what happened in my pretend play.
-
Talk about the wonder of the natural world when you are out and about with your child.
-
I care about the wonderful natural world.
-
Collect pebbles, twigs, or leaves that can be graded by size.
-
I care about the natural materials and can grade them from the smallest to biggest and shortest to the longest.
-
Draw your child's attention to the sounds that different animals make and tell them what the male, female and baby names are e.g stallion, mare, foal.
-
I care about animals and can tell you what male, female and baby animals are called and what sounds they make.
-
Provide child size jugs, and milk, water, fruit and vegetables.
-
I care about my health and can prepare my own snack.
-
Play 'Hide and Seek'. Begin by hiding an animal toy and joining in the search. When your child is ready, encourage them to sometimes be the 'hider'. and at other times the 'seeker'.
-
I can play hide and seek and care about finding things when they are lost.
-
Talk to your child about conservation work being carried out around the world.
-
I care about endangered species and their protection.
-
Grow a plant with your child from a seed or a bulb. Explain what it needs to survive and show them how to care for it.
-
I care about plants and can grow and look after them.
-
Provide a selection of large and small containers to catch (harvest) different quantities of rain.
-
I care about saving water and can catch a little rain in a small rain catcher and a lot of rain in a big one.
-
Wipe outdoor surfaces with your child. Use a damp white cloth. Note where there is more soot near vehicles. Talk about pollution.
-
I care about air pollution and can tell you where it comes from.
-
Show your child how you can find the answers to questions about the world in books.
-
I care about the world and can find out about it from books.
-
Read to your child picture story books about animals and the natural world.
-
I care about animals and enjoy stories about them.
-
Visit places where you can see wildlife, identify any possible threats to their habitats and food supplies.
-
I care about wildlife and can help feed our wild animals.
-
-
-
Provide opportunities for children to eat together and share a conversation.
-
I care about other children and share a snack with a friend.
-
Model how to listen to other ideas and adapt play themes.
-
I care about other people's ideas and listen to my friends.
-
Provide access to a range of toys for boys and girls and encourage play across gender stereotypes.
-
I care about girls and boys and play with all the toys.
-
Support children to be independent and be able to say "no thank you" to offered help.
-
I care for myself and say; "No thank you" when I do not need help.
-
Talk about the number of people who will eat breakfast and ask how many bowls you will need to set the table.
-
I care about sharing and can work out how many bowls I need to put out for breakfast.
-
Provide pictures of fruits or vegetables and ask children to choose their favourite.
-
I care about fruit and have favourites - a first choice, and a second choice.
-
Provide opportunities for children to celebrate cultural festivals.
-
I care about festivals celebrated by other cultural groups.
-
Think out loud for your child when you are doing routine household tasks.
-
I care about why it is that people do things.
-
Provide times to share knowledge of preferences.
-
I care about some things more than others and can tell people about my likes and dislikes
-
Model how to help others when they are upset.
-
I care about others and can help or give comfort when others are upset.
-
Talk to children about the value of charity shops and donating toys no longer used.
-
I care about other people who do not have things that I take for granted.
-
Support children to recognise that other languages to their home languages are spoken in the world.
-
I value and care about language and I can say three words in another language.
-
Visit the countryside with your child. Support them in re-telling the story of their visit.
-
I care about sharing my experiences and can re-tell the story of a recent visit to the countryside.
-
Share stories with children, such as Handa's Surprise. (Eileen Browne (2016) Handa's Surprise, Walker Books).
-
I care about children in other countries and can tell a story about one.
-
Show children danger signs, such as deep water, electricity and "!" - All red triangle signs mean danger.
-
I care about avoiding danger and can recognise warning signs.
-
-
-
Provide a torch and remind the child how important it is not to waste battery life.
-
I care about saving money and remember to turn things off to save the battery.
-
Show water pipes under taps, water meter/water main and visit (or show a picture of) a reservoir.
-
I care about my water supply and remember to turn the tap off when I clean my teeth.
-
Provide access to a meter or picture of a meter.
-
I care about measuring energy and pretend to be a meter reader.
-
Provide five current buns (pretend/real) and five pennies. This could be extended to other foods, such as Chapattis and introduce number symbols.
-
I care about how much things cost and can sing "Five current buns in a baker's shop"
-
Provide recycled materials and glue to create a collage.
-
I care about reducing waste and can make a collage with recycled materials.
-
Provide number instructions/labels to feed a pet or select fruit for a snack.
-
I care about reducing waste and can recognise numbers 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5.
-
Provide electrical games or access to a television.
-
I care about saving electricity and turn off an electrical appliance when I have finished using it.
-
Provide a group of objects which can be shared.
-
I care about sharing and can share things out fairly.
-
Model how to effectively wash hands.
-
Model how to effectively wash hands.
-
Visit the library with your child to borrow books about the natural world and sustainability.
-
I care about learning and about saving money so I visit and make use of the public library.
-
Provide a money box for children to save pennies.
-
I care about saving money and use my monkey box.
-
Let your child see you regularly reading for different occupational purposes.
-
I care about learning to read as I can see the value of it.
-
Provide story books about recycling (with props if possible).
-
I care about recycling and can show you a story book about it.
-
Sign number songs. "1, 2, 3, 4, 5 once I caught a fish alive".
-
I care about about numbers and can sing songs with numbers in: 1 to 10.
-
Show how new uses can be found for unwanted or waste items e.g paint pots from jam jars.
-
I can find new uses for unwanted and waste objects.
-
-
-
Encourage your child to listen and identify different sounds in the natural and the built environment.
-
Adult feedback:
-
Talk about the wonder of the natural world when you are out and about with your child.
-
Adult feedback:
-
Sing action songs and rhymes with you child e.g "itsy bitsy spider...".
-
Adult feedback:
-
Show your child danger signs such as deep water, electricity and "!" all red triangle signs mean danger.
-
Adult feedback:
-
Read stories to your child suggesting that they make up an ending. What do you think happens next?
-
Adult feedback:
-
Teach your child to recognise and understand the recycle symbol.
-
Adult feedback:
-
Teach your child the song "Old MacDonald had a farm EE I EE I O".
-
Adult feedback:
-
Find some "props", character dolls, toys, etc., and show your child how they can act out a recycling story with them.
-
Adult feedback:
-
Teach A.A Milne's poem from Winnie the Pooh: Isn't it funny how a bear like honey? Buzz, buzz, buzz! I wonder why he does?
-
Adult feedback:
-
Teach your child to recognise and understand the Fairtrade symbol.
-
Adult feedback:
-
-
-
Play games such as "Hide and Seek". For example, count slowly to five as you hide a small world animal/cuddly animal toy.
-
Adult feedback:
-
Place a cloth over the top of four small world animals/toys. Remove one and ask, "Which animal has been taken away?"
-
Adult feedback:
-
Provide a group of objects which can be shared.
-
Adult feedback:
-
Collect pebbles, twigs, or leaves that can be graded by size.
-
Adult feedback:
-
Sing number songs. "1, 2, 3, 4, 5 once I caught a fish alive".
-
Adult feedback:
-
Play sorting/matching games with different colour, shape and size small world animals/toys.
-
Adult feedback:
-
Count together when you go up and down stairs pretending to be different animals.
-
Adult feedback:
-
Looks at a three different shapes - a circle, triangle and square, for example, and encourage the child to find objects in the environment that are the same shape.
-
Adult feedback:
-
Show your child the number of their age and then go on a number hunt to find as many places as possible that it is used.
-
Adult feedback:
-
When playing a game or doing anything repetitive show your child how they can make tally marks to represent how many times they have done it.
-
Adult feedback:
-
Early Childhood Education for Sustainable Citizenship: Bronze
- Free
- 130 lessons
i-Care
Think Children's Future Today!
Helper
Please contact us if you have any comments, suggestions or questions. The service is provided by volunteers and is not monitored daily. But please be assured we will respond to your message as soon as we can.