GEKA Orrong Road
Our Future in Safe Hands
Vanessa Ashman, Early Childhood Educator
At GEKA Orrong Road Kindergarten, we take every opportunity every day to embed kindness and respect towards each other, all people, animals and the environment.
In term 2, children in the Red Group have been very interested in turtles. This has expanded into learning about all sea creatures. Children have been using technology, such as choosing images of animals from the IPad for observational drawings. Some have also chosen to make their own little turtle friend using cardboard or paddle pop sticks and wool (fine motor muscle development).
Our very capable children have also been invited to set up play spaces/environments for the turtles, which has brought much development of language and imaginative play, as well as a deeper understanding for our world. Literacy skills have developed by reading books and writing messages to each other, such as ‘Please Be Kind to Our Oceans’ and ‘Please Look After our Turtles.’
Extending further on this interest, this week we discussed and celebrated World Ocean Day, June 8 2021. We talked about all the different living things that live in the ocean, and what we must do to look after them and keep them safe. We talked about how it makes us feel sad when rubbish goes into the ocean and what we need to do to protect our ocean environment and all the creatures who live there, and for future generations. A lovely, caring sense of community and teamwork flourished as children created a large class mural for World Ocean Day.
We were so proud of our children as their thoughts, ideas and comments demonstrated what kind and empathetic children we have, and that if the future is in their safe hands, all our ocean creatures will be safe and happy for many years to come.
We would like to share some of their comments:
Zara- My favourite animal is a starfish. Don’t throw rubbish in the ocean. You should put it in the bin.
Monte- Get out the rubbish otherwise it floats and all the things in the sea will die.
Henry- Make sure you know the right rubbish bin so things can be recycled. If we don’t put the rubbish in the bin, it will become Smell Beach! And the turtles will get sick and die.
Teddy- If people drop their rubbish on the beach, it will be a dump.
Blake- If you accidently drop it and it blows away you have to try and catch it. Maybe a turtle will see a plastic cup and think it’s a jellyfish and eat it and get a tummy ache.
Jack- People shouldn’t just throw their rubbish. If someone drops rubbish it will go down the gutter into the ocean.
Patrick- Please pick up your rubbish.
Milan- If you put a coffee lid in the water, a whale or shark might eat it and it will get sick and I would feel bad.
Chevy- When the rubbish goes in the ocean the fish get really sick. Once I saw a sick turtle who ate plastic and dad called the ambulance.
Erica- I was sad when the turtle was stuck in the plastic bag.
Tanishka- If someone put the rubbish in the water, the doctors will come and put bandaids on all the sick animals and then they will be happy.
Nina- Someone threw some string in the ocean and a turtle got stuck and the kind people got some scissors to help it get out.
Flynn- If we don’t look after the ocean the good people wont see all the great animals.
Clem- If the animals eat the rubbish, it wont be good for them.
Pitu- If the people drop the rubbish in the ocean the fish will get sick and die.
Josh- Put the chippie packets in the bin!
Aylah- If people don’t look after their rubbish our world will be a Dump! That’s not nice and we wont see any beautiful animals.
Ashton- If people accidentally drop their rubbish in the sea, the creatures might get dead.
“Bringing nature into the classroom can kindle a fascination and passion for the diversity of life on earth and can motivate a sense of responsibility to safeguard it. Cherish the natural world because you’re part of it and you depend on it.” ~ David Attenborough
