Teaching children about sustainable habits like recycling, is very important for their future. But what’s even better is to show them how it works and engaging in entertaining and dynamic activities. For this exact reason, last week the 3rd Kindergarten of Vrontados learned about recycling and they did it in partnership with the Hellenic Marine Environment Protection Association, also known as HELMEPA.
At the beginning of the week the kids learned about what recycling was, and they talked about how they recycle in their houses and basically what they already knew. Most of them were already very educated in the topic and talked about how they see the plastics and the garbage in the beach and how it later goes in to the sea. On the next day, they were asked to bring garbage from their houses and the teacher explained to them were each item goes, the plastics to the yellow bin, the paper to the blue, etc. Later, the kids first had a game where they had to throw the trash in their correct bins and race each other to see who was faster. After, we all went outside and recycled the trash in the real bins.
On the next days, they continued learning about this topic, but this time, focused on how the garbage affects the sea and the animals that live in it. Because of this I had to draw and paint with the children a beach, and later helped them to draw first, people in the beach recycling and later sea animals. This was a great opportunity for them to learn about different types of sea animals. They saw multiple real videos of animals like octopus, sharks and different kinds of fish. I got to teach them how to properly draw some of the animals, like a fish and a shark, for example, to which I succeed to a certain extent.
They also received a lot of fun material for the children to worth and play with from HELMEPA, like some necklaces that said “η θάλασσα είναι ζωή”, meaning, the sea is life. Under this motto, we prepared for the excursion to the beach of Daskalopetra. Before leaving the school, the teacher told the kids about how they had to behave, walking in pairs and together with the teachers. We left the school and I was in charge of one of the smallest kids. I walked with her, holding my hand and having some chit chat and gossip about her cats. This kind of excursions is the perfect time for the volunteers to bond even more with the kids and see each other in a different atmosphere.
Once we got to the beach, a parent of one of the children who is a fisher man, showed us his boats and the children were very excited and asked him many questions. Later, we arrived at the beach where all the kids left their backpacks in the bar and started putting on their plastic gloves. Once everyone was ready, we took over the beach, to much surprise of the people enjoying their peaceful morning. The kids, as polite as always, said hello to everyone and explained their very important task. I was in charge of taking pictures of everything and also ended being in charge of the kids that were running away towards the sea or the bar.
Once the beach was perfectly cleaned, we went back to our base camp, the bar, and washed the kids hands. We played a little game and had free time until the parents came to pick them up. During this time, I played with them and continued taking some nice pictures of them, as well as spending some times with the teachers and drinking a nice coffee. The parents started to come and the morning ended with a successful recycling session and with high hopes for our next generation.
