The Learningden Preschool Recycled Material Project

Transitions to a greener cleaner facility- There is a lot of talk about what it means to be green, and it seems like now days “green” has become a buzzword. What we have noticed in the last several weeks is that everyone’s idea of being green means something different. In our school we buy mostly used furniture, toys and decorative accents, we use lamp lighting if we use lighting at all most of the time the sun lights our classrooms.  And we protect the safety of the indoor air quality and stay away from harsh chemicals in our cleaning products, room deodorizers and we use natural pest control remedies (cinnamon) etc, for ants and spiders in the facility.   We have Asthma action plans for the facility set up to meet the needs of children with allergies and asthma and are a peanut free facility when there are children with nut allergies to meet the needs of those children . In an effort to take the school to a whole other level we have decided to focus more attention on gardening and planting a “hopefully” sustainable garden, we are currently hiring a new holistic education teacher who will be responsible for all aspects of our gardening, composting and holistic education program. The children are so motivated in this area we have made the decision as a school to move forward in this direction. So that you know what “green” means to us in the next several weeks we will be focusing on and displaying works that has been done by the children. All the materials in these projects are recycled and have been donated by the parents and the community. It will take the whole community working together to make the Learningden a place where recycled materials feed inspiration and creativity to our children. So that all of the community is able to share in the experience we will invite the community for an art showing displaying the children’s work as well and provide documentation for why and how all the works were done and created. It is the chance to really focus on taking what we teach the children about what it means to take care of the earth and each other, and share with the community through documentation and art so that they get an idea about how it all comes together.  Stay tuned for further details on the Learningden Preschool recycled material project. We are hoping that the exhibit will be ready for the week Earth day 2010. We will have a reception, and have the school open for viewing for 2 evenings.