We have recently been celebrating Earth Month with our little ones. Earth Month is designed to create more awareness of environmental issues, honour the natural environment, and how things could become worse if we do not change the ways we live on Earth. 🌍

It is important that our young tamariki at Buckle My Shoe become kaitaiaki of our beloved Papatūānuku, so generations to come can grow up in an environment that is healthy and strong. The United Nations shared a model consisting of three pillars - social/cultural, environmental and economic, to support this thinking. So what did we get up to? 😊

Our first sustainable project has been our front & back gardens and education around our compost. Gardening and having compost supports the environmental pillar as we protect and care for the earth through gardening and saving our suitable food scrapes. 👩‍🌾👨‍🌾

We keep the ecosystem healthy by producing healthy plants, whose nutrients can then enter the soil and feed not only humans but also other creatures in the garden. With composting and worm farming we can return the nutrients back into the soil. In other words, we become the kaitiaki of our garden and the earth that sustains us by what it gives back to us, to keep us healthy and strong. 💪😊

Not only are we being kaitaiaki of Papa but by gardening we can also meet the economic pillar. We can reduce costs by growing our own fresh vegetables, reducing food miles and reducing landfill waste.

Gardening also meets our social/cultural pillar by us working together; enhancing our social skills and being able to share the produce with one another once it has grown. Education around Maramataka and the phases he shares can support us in understanding the seasons and when harvesting & planting are at their prime to gain the best results.

Our little ones love getting involved in our gardens. It provides an opportunity to see how something can grow from a seedling into a delicious source of nutrition for our bodies and growing minds. 👏😊

We also had a special guest, Barbara, who is a Zero Waste Educator come in to the centre and have a kōrero about global warming and how recycling can make a huge difference to reduce its speed and help with meeting the environmental pillar. She showed us how much waste is collected within a year and compared it to our sacred tupuna Mauao. 🙏💖

She also shared with us a few stories about what can and cannot be recycled. We have been supporting our tamariki with more responsibility by taking both our recycling bins out to the big yellow bin and emptying them as well as composting what we collect from our lunch boxes out to worms, enhancing the social/cultural pillar. 🙌

On our travels, we have also noticed a few friends in the garden and we have moved some of our new friends into safer areas for them to be. This is so our vegetables can continue to grow healthy and strong but also allows our insect friends to do their jobs needed to keep our earth healthy. 💕

We have been so excited to see all the different insects and creatures in our garden and discuss what they are, what physical differences they have, and what importance they hold. This month we have not only learned how to care for and protect our gardens, but also the living things within them enhancing the social and cultural pillar. 🐞🐛

We will continue on this journey of sustainability and care for our environment. We know that through this process, our little ones are building up an awareness of how they can contribute to keeping our earth beautiful. 🌏😊🙏

'Manaaki whenua, Manaaki tangata, haere whakamua'

'Care for the land, care for the people, go forward'