Since the last years of the XNUMXth century, activities have been created to sensitize children in favor of nature conservation, due to the importance that the protection and conservation of the environment has been taking for society. Due to this, Activities for the Care of the Environment have been created, such as environmental education programs aimed at raising children's awareness of caring for the environment. Some activities are shown below.
Activities for the Care of the Environment
To guarantee a healthier and more suitable environment to live and enjoy the natural beauties that nature offers, human beings have to assume the commitment to be more careful with the environment. Starting with his own attitude, as well as the place where he lives and continuing with the entire community, managing to be an example for children and adolescents to follow.
In this XNUMXst century, one of the situations that must be assumed is the protection, management and conservation of the planet's biodiversity, in view of the oil spills that have been occurring, high energy consumption, loss of vegetation due to forest fires and expansion of the urban border, imbalance of the food chain and climate change, among other situations that have to make us reflect. What is being done to make the population aware of loving and caring for the environment?
Due to this, it is increasingly important to carry out Activities for the Care of the Environment, especially those of environmental education aimed at children, so that from an early age they begin to be more careful with the environment and, as a complement, carry out activities in communities where they participate. adults and children so that in this way teamwork between parents and children is achieved and everyone identifies with environmental preservation. Above all, understand that the Environment is taken care of through a change of attitude from our homes, by incorporating activities such as garbage recycling and others.
Incorporate the Recycling Activity
One of the activities that parents and children can participate in from home is the classification of garbage and the application of the "3 R" principle, that is, Recycle, Reuse and Reduce. The different recycling programs and projects have concluded that this is one of the strategies used to care for the environment, which has been very illustrative for children, and especially when children are included in these activities.
The application of recycling and reuse to reduce the production of garbage from home is achieved by incorporating actions such as recycling paper from notebook sheets and cardboard at home, reusing plastic bottles and tetrapak to make useful objects at home and toys for children, as well as activities that allow learning to reduce the garbage that is generated in homes.
One of the activities that can be done in houses when you want to renew your design and decoration is the restoration of furniture, which will allow you to give the furniture a new and attractive design, and save costs to redirect money elsewhere. Projects. One way to do this furniture repurposing is to take an old vintage style piece of furniture, sand it down and then apply a varnish or if you feel like applying a coat of colored paint, plus varnish and you have a new piece of furniture. If it is the first time that you undertake the restoration, it is suggested to start with small and easy to restore furniture.
Contact with nature and its care
The way to learn to love the environment is to go on excursions to the countryside with the aim of learning to care for the environment and, one way to care for it is by learning about plants and animals, for this it is suggested to participate in activities such as bird watching , recognition of plants, recycling or learning to take pictures of nature, these activities are organized by environmental foundations and government institutions.
This would give a new meaning to the field trips that would be made both to enjoy nature and to take care of it. By participating in garbage collection activities or incorporating that activity during the excursion, you learn to be more careful and be an example for the little ones. To carry out the same it is suggested to carry bags, gloves and spikes that will help to collect the garbage that is easier. It is possible to find a lot of it.
Just as field trips are carried out with the aim of collecting garbage, activities can also be scheduled for the reforestation of forests. For this it is convenient to be part of an organized group and that it is advised by people who know the area and the type of tree that has to be planted. For this, organized environmental groups will have to be contacted to carry out reforestation in specific sites and with the appropriate permission.
vegan meals at home
With the aim of gradually incorporating activities that sensitize the members of the house in the care of the environment and that in turn improve the quality of life of all, without having to do activities outside the home, it is by having themed dinners or meals in the home with family and friends. The intention of these types of meals is to incorporate the issue of environmental care in a fun way among family and friends, in this way little by little different points of view are exchanged from the recipes and preparation of vegan meals with local and organic products. . Products that have a less negative impact on the environment.
Although this type of activity is more attractive for naturist and vegetarian people, it can be a variant of the meals offered at home, and help to learn about different healthy and more ecological diets. Likewise, bringing omnivorous people closer to this type of food options that can be very tasty and due to ignorance or misinformation they prefer not to eat them. It is a way of educating the palate.
To make this type of meeting more fun and make it easier for everyone to feel integrated into the meal, it can be to ask that each one bring a plate with different, appetizing and attractive vegan recipes for all diners. It can also be forming a meal preparation team, that is: one team makes the first course, another makes the second and finally one makes the desserts and drinks. The condition for all is that they are appetizing meals with a low environmental impact, by using organic ingredients and most of them of plant origin. That they are less harmful to the environment than those of animal origin.
Attend environmental education activities
One of the activities with the greatest positive impact that we can all participate in and that Caring for the Environment can help with is educating ourselves on how to be better citizens and protect the planet. If environmental education is carried out from an early age, children will learn to be more aware of the effects that climate change, a global pandemic, and other actions carried out by man that affect the environment can cause, if this education is well directed, it will turn out that they are adults aware of the importance of good management of the environment.
It is suggested to go as a family to exhibitions and conferences related to environmental protection and, likewise, to centers with environmental education activities, where children discover and learn more about nature and how human beings can take care of the environment or cause high negative impact. about nature, in order to expand their critical view of environmental issues and help children to be responsible people and have a lifestyle that is more respectful of nature.
Children and the Environment
Many of the urban children have little connection with the natural environment that some of their parents and adult relatives came to enjoy. Coming to lose their connection with the natural environment and instead of seeing it as a pleasant place due to ignorance, they tend to see it with some fear and little relation to their child health and emotional development.
What can be learned from nature
You have to be aware of the importance of nature in the lives of all human beings, given that this is a vital place in the lives of children, since in it they can learn skills and many abilities and skills. . Such as sharing, teamwork, collaboration, sensitivity and empathy, among others. In addition, nature is a place where you learn to observe, respect, snoop around and learn to be independent and interdependent.
learn values
By teaching children to take care of plants, animals and nature in general, children are helped to work on the value of responsibility and, in addition, self-esteem is reinforced. Likewise, children feel useful and committed when they are taught how to take care of the Environment, and their participation in recycling or reforestation activities makes them feel important because they are helped by carrying out these Activities to Take Care of the Environment.
Become aware
Environmental education became an important issue for children's education and, it ceased to be a class subject and from the classrooms it becomes increasingly important in homes. This is because imparting environmental education from when children are young makes them grow in respect for the environment, which is why from a young age you can talk to them about how to reuse cardboard boxes to make toys, or how plastic bottles can be recycled or how to throw away the papers in the garbage basket decrease pollution.
be role models for children
As in any discipline, if you want the student to surpass the teacher and be good in the area that is being trained, we adults have to set an example with our actions. This means that if the parents, representatives, teachers and other adults who are part of the children's lives are people who have incorporated Activities to Care for the Environment in their lives, such as recycling, reusing packaging, clothing , throw the rubbish in the baskets and talk at home about how to take care of nature, children may be more “ecofriendly” and be the first to help other children take care of nature.
Games to get closer to nature
One way to teach children to love nature more is through games, which allow them to be in contact with plants, animals, the outdoors, team up with other children and other entertaining activities. Some actions and resources are described below to teach children to love nature, learning from fun games.
Go on nature excursions
To teach the little ones in the house to value and respect nature, activities must be carried out that bring them closer to it. For this, you have to plan walks to the beach, excursions to the mountains near the houses, teach how to ride a bicycle so that they can ride together along routes prepared for this in the recreational areas of the parks.
While enjoying a picnic in the mountains or on the beach, it will be used as fun stories about leaving the place clean and that we have to take away the waste that was generated during the meal, to avoid feeding the animals because they can get sick. Also, about respect for the different ecosystems and teaching through ecological stories how to take care of them.
clue game
The clues game is about making animal tracks or other codes on cardboard or other recyclable material that the children have to guess. Another way is to first tell a story where the names of some trees or birds appear and then ask them to find out the names of the trees associated with the story or also the songs of the birds. These games will help children sharpen to observe more the elements with which they coexist in nature.
plant seeds at home
Making seedbeds is a simple activity that can teach children to experience the process of plant growth from germination, watering and plant growth. This can be done with seeds from chickpeas, lentils, beans or black beans and other seeds from plants that germinate quickly.
garbage game
This game can be played in a field, park or square and is done with a group of children, forming several teams depending on the number of children and giving each team empty garbage bags. After an explanatory talk, the teams will collect the largest amount of garbage they find. The team that wins will be the one that collects the most garbage from the place where they are.
basketball with waste
They carry different bags of yellow, green, blue and brown colors or also boxes or baskets and they are identified with blue, yellow, green and brown signs. A line is painted that limits or separates these containers from the children, the objective is that the children, after having received information on the separation of solid waste, basket the waste they find in the place, and basket it separately. paper, cardboard, plastic containers, vegetables, in the appropriate containers for each type of solid waste. Also these residues or waste can be provided by the facilitators. It is preferable to avoid using glass because they break.
creating habits
Also at home, children can be taught certain habits that help to take care of the environment and, in addition to teaching children, adults can also put it into practice. Among these habits is turning off the taps while brushing your teeth, turning off the shower while soaping, if they have a bathtub, use it if you have small children to bathe them, and adults and older children take a shower. Write on both pages of the white sheets, this and other Actions can be carried out at home and taught to children from an early age.
The Ecological Games in the parks of Venezuela
The Ecological Games highlight the importance of games as a didactic tool to carry out environmental education in Venezuela. The Ecological Games is an educational tool whose objective is the formation of an environmental culture in children and young people. The Ecological Games in Venezuela were initially directed by their creator Maritza Pulido in Inparques (National Parks Institute) in the 1980s of the XNUMXth century, which took place in the Recreation Parks and National Parks of the country.
The Ecological Games in the Parks program, which was carried out from 1979 to 2000, was a very successful educational activity that managed to train and train many children and young people at the national level in Venezuela. Completed this totally practical stage, the environmental training method began to be offered to education professionals.
During the years 2003 to 2005, the work method of the Ecological Games was brought to practicing teachers who were studying in an Environmental Training Course for Teachers of public and rural schools in Venezuela, through the agreement between the Ecojuegos Foundation and the National Center for the Improvement of Science Teaching, Ministry of Education and Sports of Venezuela.
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