Integrating Environmental Education in the ECD Curriculum. A Whole-System Approach.
3. Sustainability and Food Waste: Living What we Learn
Learning about sustainability is one thing, living it and bringing it to life is another. This optional phase helps ECD centres turn learning into action through simple, practical composting practices that close the loop on environmental education.
4. Take-Home Extension: Growing Impact Beyond the Classroom
The journey doesn’t end in the classroom. Through our take-home storybooks and seed packs, children become little environmental ambassadors, sharing what they have learned with their families and helping sustainability take root in their own homes.
The Ripple Effect
What begins with teacher empowerment grows into child development, centre transformation, and community engagement.
Together, these elements create a living cycle of learning and sustainability, where knowledge takes root, confidence blossoms, and the seeds of change continue to grow long after the programme ends.
At the heart of our Environmental Education Programme is both teacher and learner growth. We know that not every ECD practitioner has had access to formal training, so our workshops are designed to build both knowledge and confidence.
Through outcomes-based facilitation sessions, mentoring, and classroom-based practice, teachers discover how to weave sustainability into everyday learning - from nature-based play , storytelling, planting and recycling. But they also gain something deeper: stronger teaching skills, new ideas for creative learning, and the confidence to guide young minds with curiosity and care.
By the end of the training, educators don’t just teach differently, they see differently. They become facilitators of discovery, role models of lifelong learning, and champions of change within their centres and communities.
Our approach brings the environment right into the heart of early learning. Children don’t just hear about nature, they touch it, grow it, and learn through it. Every creative classroom activity, planting, storytelling or recycling activity helps them build vital skills: problem-solving, fine motor coordination, communication, empathy, and a sense of belonging to something bigger.
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For teachers, this integration opens up a new way of teaching. They learn to link sustainability themes, like caring for plants, reducing waste, and respecting nature, with developmental goals in literacy, numeracy, and social-emotional learning. Environmental education becomes a natural part of growing well-rounded, curious, and capable young learners.
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This hands-on, heart-led approach helps children understand how their actions shape the world around them and empowers teachers to guide that discovery. Together, they’re nurturing a generation of lifelong learners who care for both people and the planet.
To truly nurture a sustainable mindset, it helps when teachers and children can see the cycle of care in action. This programme extension helps teachers and learners live what they have learnt about the environment.
Composting offers just that - a real, hands-on way to turn everyday food scraps into nutrient-rich soil and a way to show how soil supports new life in form of food and plants.
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This process also connects beautifully with classroom planting activities. The seedlings grown as part of the environmental learning sessions can be transplanted into the nutrient-rich compost, Thus, completing the full circle of learning and growth - from understanding food waste, to composting, to planting in healthy soil that gives back to the earth.
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When centres are able to implement small-scale composting, it not only supports environmental education but deepens the practice of sustainability across the whole school community. It’s a beautiful reminder that every small seed, and every handful of compost, helps nurture a greener, healthier future.
Although optional and budget dependent, this phase is key to achieving maximum impact, extending environmental awareness beyond the classroom and into the homes and hearts of the community. It amplified the programme’s impact by carrying environmental learning into the heart of each child’s home. At the end of the programme, every child receives a storybook which includes a packet of seeds to take home, these are creative tools that spark big conversations and lasting change.
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Children apply what they have learned: reusing plastic containers, planting seeds, nurturing seedlings, and explaining each step to their parents, siblings, or caregivers. In doing so, they reinforce their own learning through hands-on experience, increase their confidence, while inspiring others to join in.
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This phase transforms children into change agents, showing that meaningful learning doesn’t stop at school gates. What begins as a classroom project becomes a shared experience, connecting home, school, communities and environment in one continuous cycle of learning, growing, and giving back to the earth.