Encourage kindergarten children to think about environmental issues through the variety of different games, homemade tools and Slovene folk fairytales.
To engage pre-school children with the topic of environmental issues, in particular energy conservation, it is important to communicate the message in a simple way which they can understand. Children in kindergarten are familiar with the world of fairy tales. A well-known Slovenian folk fairy tale was selected as a basic tool for delivering content on the themes of saving energy, upgraded using elements from within the field of energy use, which children need to recognize during storytelling. The story tells about the girl who finds a coin. She bought a large pot which becomes her home. During the night forest animals knock on the door of the pot and ask girl to open up because they are cold. Most animals that are taken under the roof do something wrong, for example they leave the door open, or they don’t turn off the light, or they keep the water running, etc. After storytelling, the children are encouraged to think about what each animal has done wrong, why this is wrong and how they should behave. The educational goals were as follows: With the appropriate approach, to involve and motivate the youngest to start thinking about environmental issues linked to energy: to demonstrate several different approaches to integrate environmental content into the preschool curriculum. Also, to encourage their teachers to plan similar activities for children in the future, and in doing so, to highlight the importance of the user’s behavior in energy use status of specific buildings.
Resources needed
€5,000 of material costs for building a small table-size theatre and for puppets + cost of one person for implementing workshop (cca 1 hour for one performance). The tool is designed in a way that a person can travel around the schools or kindergartens.
Evidence of success
Children actively cooperate, teachers are very interested. The workshops have been performed in more than 10 kindergartens with very positive results. It involves 240 preschool children and 22 kindergarten educators.
Difficulties encountered
With the appropriate approach involve and motivate youngest generations to start thinking about environmental issues linked to energy. Demonstrate approaches to integrate environmental content into the curriculum and encourage kindergarten teachers to plan similar activities.
Potential for learning or transfer
Yes, sharing the home-made tools, games, fairy tales.
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