Implementation of “Trees, our life” (SOI-GR-405)

Author:  Eleni Soufleri, Kindergarten Teacher

School/Organization: Vagion Kindergarten

One of the subjects that children like is the forest. The forest – part of our earth – from which we can only benefit, but unfortunately this is not understood by all people, who sacrifice it due to greed or carelessness. If children love the forest from an early age, they will be able to visit it regularly throughout their lives, spend beautiful moments there and – as much as possible – protect it.

I PROTECT THE FOREST. 

The scenario was implemented as part of the Skills Workshop for environmental education and specific to the Forest. It lasted 6 weeks. My goals – was to help children understand the benefits of forests and at the same time the danger that forests face every summer from fires and to make them aware of their protection. Also, the script I chose – in Greek – could be applied to my students, because it was simple and understandable

I got a lot of ideas, implemented script activities, but also conducted my own activities.

The scenario was applied for rescue in a kindergarten, specifically to 23 children aged 4-6 years. The toddlers have a little familiarity with Europeana , where last year there was a scenario about Easter customs and traditions. And all children – toddlers and toddlers – we often see various paintings.

Detecting prior knowledge

In the beginning, children’s knowledge was traced through a concept map. They then watched a video and had a discussion about what a forest is. At the end we saw European paintings and commented on them.

Teaching activities

We talked about the parts of a tree and how trees grow through books, we did the 2 experiments (suggested by Koutra Evanthia). We learned the song Then we talked about the benefits of the forest, the dangers it faces and what we can do to protect them. We talked about whether forest problems exist only in Greece or in other countries as well . We learned about the god of the forest. We heard sounds of the forest. We also took a virtual tour of museums, forests and parks in Europe 

Consolidation activities

The children are asked to draw how they will make the forest and in general our land more beautiful and we drew our own forest as a group. They also make the forest with recyclable materials and plasticine.

Assessment activities

They were made through google form and scratch

Metacognitive activities

The project ends with a concept map and the children compare the initial to the final concept map. The children visit the Moschopodi forest in Thebes, observe, ask the person in charge and enrich their knowledge.

DEFENDERS OF THE FOREST

The learning benefits achieved were children getting to know the forest, loving it and wanting to protect it. They got in touch with Europeana , learned how we find material and started thinking critically, evaluating the material. Their environmental consciousness developed. Parents and especially children have been excited about the issue.

I would advise all teachers to prepare a workshop on this topic, because children are our future and they must love the forest, want to become its defenders before all Greek forests are destroyed.

Europeana and me

Searching for material in Europeana takes time and patience, one should allocate time to find the necessary material from each category. He should also look at the license of each creation in order to use it.

At first I struggled, but little by little, using the right filters, I found material and studied it.

The result that I found material and that the children liked, made me feel happy and satisfied and want to deal with Europeana again . I also feel satisfaction, because the children were sensitized on this important topic and my goals were achieved.

Did you find this story of implementation interesting? Why don’t you read about the related learning scenario? The Trees, Our Life created by Koutra Evanthia

Did you find this story of implementation interesting? You might also like: 

• TREE FOR THE MIND , implemented Sanja Ždralović
• It’s Time to Change! , implemented by Agnieszka Pielorz
• Let’s Make Green Decisions , implemented by Anita Lasi

Do you want to discover more stories of implementation? Click here.

CC BY-SA 3.0: the featured image used to illustrate this article has been found on Europeana and has been provided by the Wikimedia Commons Community.