Early Childhood Education Program: "Little Water Drop"
1. PROGRAM OVERVIEW:
Our early childhood water programs develop early learning guides and
curriculum for teaching young children about water, water resources and
water's vital role in their lives. By using early childhood national
guidelines, the environmental program will provide hands on activities
and learning modules that will help early learners use their natural
curiosity to explore and make connections between water and their world
around them.
The program integrates instruction and teaching
across disciplines, drawing upon many of the methods and content of
natural and social sciences, arts, mathematics, and humanities to help
learners fully understand and engage in environmental issues. The
learner is an active participant in environmental education. If
learning is to become a natural, valued part of life beyond school,
instruction should engage the learner in the process of building
knowledge and skills and be guided in part by the student's interests.
Environmental education is a comprehensive and cohesive whole that
draws on broader educational goals and instructional methods while also
utilizing outdoor education methods as well as those that help students
develop early citizenship skills.
PROGRAM GOAL
The
"Little Water Drop" program is a water education program to enhance the
interest, knowledge and skills of children and childcare services and
to encourage and guide their practices and policies towards sustainable
water use. Its aim is to empower early educators with knowledge, tools
and methods for teaching environmental water education, challenge
centers to innovate and integrate best practices into their culture and
to influence behavior of children, families and educators.
PROGRAM OBJECTIVES
1.
Create environmental literacy program for children ages 3-6, focusing
on water education that increases knowledge of water conservation and
general water knowledge, promotes stewardship and affects actions in
their behavior.
2. Little Water Drop program will be utilized in
early learning environments to educate teachers, administrators and
parent population at the local level about actions that they can take
to minimize water risks and increase water efficiency in their homes or
schools.
3. Work in conjunction with early learning training
schedules of state licensing agencies or DHR to train teachers about
how to incorporate this information into their classrooms.
4.
Provide dynamic active learning lesson plans, stories, songs, early
learning kits and aids to classrooms to deliver curriculum across a
variety of domains. Curriculum promotes problems solving skills and
critical thinking.
5. Provide schools with activities to increase parent involvement and education.
6.
Develop standard practices for schools or LEA's to put the information
into action in their own environment. Utilize water conservation and
efficiency practices at the local level and encourage adoption of
practices into children's homes.
7. Incorporate natural
surroundings and outdoor education opportunities for young children to
gain positive experiences with the environment that they are protecting
and promote connection between cause and effect of water
conservation/efficiency best practices.
8. Develop themes to
focus on at least three (3) of a selection of values, attitudes,
knowledge and skills in relation to water and water conservation.
Contact our EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION TEAM for more information
|
|
