ACCESS TO NATURE SURVEY - Have your say!

Until February 2023, the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child will host a series of offline and online consultations and workshops with the global community, including specific consultations with children and young people, to inform the General Comment launching in 2023. The invitation can be found here https://childrightsenvironment.org/global-community/

In the absence of a feedback tool for children aged birth - 5 years, Woden Valley ELC has created this survey.

General Comment 26 Assessment tool final

.pdf

Download PDF • 1.15MB

* In the PDF attached, you will find the survey pages are in a strange order that will make sense if you ask your printer to print two pages per A4 sheet. This will then make an A5 booklet.

Why participate?

The Convention on the Rights of the Child requires States parties to “assure the child who is capable of forming his or her own views has the right to express those views freely in all matters affecting the child(...)” (Art. 12).

This survey aims to identify and remove barriers that children (birth to 5 years) face in accessing the full enjoyment of their human rights. In the below video, you can see how we’ve used the survey with the children at our Centre.

This survey gives children in early learning settings an opportunity to have their opinion on the environment documented and submitted to the United Nations by the 15th of February, 2023.

Have your say!

#accesstonature #naturepedagogy #rightsofthechild #UN #ECA

Nature Pedagogy - Beginnings

Woden Valley ELC Nature Pedagogy Leader, Gabby Millgate presents a snapshot of the environments, as well as the connection and contribution of the children in Term 2 (Autumn/Winter) at Woden Valley Early Learning Centre.

In this video, you will see our environments and the natural elements made available to the children, those include:

- Jerusalem artichoke tubers to dig up and line up to count

- edible greens

- crackable eggs

- climbable trees

- seed planting

- chicken taming

Autumn is a time when we clear the summer garden beds and prepare for spring with bulbs and pansies. It is also time to grow cauliflowers and broccolis. Berries, fragrant herbs and flowers can be used in artistic endeavours. It's also time to start preparing for fires and to assess the children's capacity to listen to instructions and stay safe during fire experiences.

Embedding Ngoonawal wisdom and language meaningfully into the children's experiences is part of the foundation for intentional teaching around “...our responsibilities for a sustainable future and promoting children’s understanding about their responsibility to care for the environment...” [EYLF; pg. 18]

As 2020 was the first year of COVID-19 lockdowns; being outside become idle to everyone's sense of well-being. Due to COVID-19 and many events being cancelled; our service got to participate in Floriade Reimagined. In this video you will see all children connect and contribute to this community event by collecting compost, digging dirt, building garden beds, planting seedlings and bulbs, and adding mulch. It was the epitome of connecting and contributing to our world.

The final part of the video is to share ways to make literacy accessible to children in the format of nature pedagogy cards, with words and pictures from the children's environments. You'll also see how a child, who is not very verbally communicative, uses these cards to create stories with his educators and peers.

In this video, you will see children’s emerging and essential relationship with nature. We hope you will be inspired when you see how capable children are at connecting and contributing to their world.

Nature Pedagogy - Sustainability

We are starting a new chapter in our Pedagogy Playbook series for all who wish to learn more about sustainability, nature pedagogy and nature play-based learning.

This video was filmed over one year at WVELC. In it, you will see the children participating in meaningful, sustainable practices resulting in a corn harvest. Children were involved in all parts of the process, from planting to harvest. Along the way, they care for the land, the animals and each other.

“Environmental education should begin early in the child’s educational process, reflect the child’s culture, language and environmental situation, and increase the child’s understanding of the relationship between humans and the environment ... It should help children appreciate and enjoy the world and strengthen their capacity to respond to environmental challenges, including by encouraging and facilitating direct experience with the natural environment.”*

* [Obligations of environmental education, A/HRC/37/58 from the Report of the Special Rapporteur on the issue of human rights obligations relating to the enjoyment of a safe, clean, healthy and sustainable environment.]