West Midland Family Center

Why Has The West Midland Family Center Preschool Gone Green? By Wendy Plewa, Former WMFC Preschool Director/Teachers Simply put, because it is important. It is imperative to learn and understand how to care for and protect our beautiful Earth outdoors as well as creating a “green” environment in our preschool classroom indoors. As we have begun to teach this concept this year, the preschool children are truly beginning to understand it and we are rolling with it! The “greening” process started years ago when I was taking my students for a walk on one of our beautiful outdoor nature paths at West Midland Family Center. It was a sunny, crisp, fall day and the children were chattering with excitement as their feet were crunching the leaves beneath their feet. As we continued along the path, some of the students noticed, along with me, that the path had become heavily littered with trash. There were used french fries boxes, plastic cups, napkins, paper bags, and even a used diaper. The children were disgusted and a lengthy “trash” discussion ensued. We discussed how trash “ruins the Earth” and makes it “look yucky.” The children helped me to pick up the trash and throw it away in the proper trash cans outside. The path looked much more inviting and the children commented that they would never throw their trash on the ground and “make Earth look bad.” Throughout the school year, our class spends much of our day outdoors enjoying all the exhilarating experiences that nature has to offer us. We also spend a lot of our outdoor time picking up trash left behind by others to make our school grounds look sparkling clean. Even though picking up the trash is not the most enjoyable part of our outdoor time, the children are learning a valuable lesson on how to respect and protect the Earth. The children do enjoy wearing the special plastic gloves to pick up all of the yucky trash scattered all over the school grounds. We carry the “green” concept indoors, too. In our preschool program, we have always been conscious about taking care of the Earth by recycling paper, plastic, and glass products. We use recycling bins in the classroom for all of our recyclable products. The children know where to throw their recyclable products away and they always tell the visitors in our classroom where these things go and the importance of recycling. They make me so proud!! We have also reduced our daily trash, which used to be 1 ½ bags daily to only ½ bag every day! We use “real” plates and cups when we eat and the children wash their own dishes ALL by themselves! They take great pride in being so independent and washing their own plates and cups. We conserve energy by turning off the lights when we are out of the classroom and use many lamps instead of the overhead lights. We also use low-wattage light bulbs. We only use 1 paper towel (not a bunch) when we dry our hands. We conserve water by making sure that we turn it off after each use and not let it just run. Many of the “green” things that we are doing in our preschool classrooms; you can do at home with your own children and families. As a positive result of the children washing their own dishes at school, many parents have told me that their children come home and want to wash the dishes at home. What a wonderful thing that you can do together as a family! You can turn off the lights when you are not using them. Conserve water by taking more showers instead of baths and making sure your water is off when you are not using it. Recycle, recycle, recycle your paper, plastic, and glass items. You will reduce your home trash load and at the same time reduce the amount of trash being sent to landfills. You can pick up trash around your home with your children. Again, this is a great activity for your whole family to do together! Let them know of the importance of keeping your home, yard, and the Earth clean and tidy. Make “going green” a great 2010 challenge for you and your family. It really is simple and easy and you can all do it together. The easiest way to ”becoming green” is to do a little at a time. There are so many great benefits!