Preparing food is an important life skill for children to learn and enjoy. Students at my zero waste nature preschool are invited to help grow, harvest and prepare food from the garden to learn where food comes from. They also help set the table and serve the snacks that we provide.

Nature does not produce waste like humans do; everything created in nature is used and has a purpose. Invite the children to be like a bird and create a nest using items only found in nature.

1. Use reusable rags instead of paper towels

We use these for hand-washing and cleaning. We have two bins labeled clean and dirty. A rag is used once and then put into the dirty bin to be washed and used again.

In the education field, teachers are often encouraged to use non-edible play materials in the classroom instead of edible materials. Running a school with an environmental focus and low-waste philosophy often causes me to ponder this topic.

Light provocations are important in the classroom to engage the children’s sense of wonder and curiosity. Recently, I have been creating off-grid alternatives for favorite plug-in learning materials.

Eliminating food waste is a critical piece of our school’s zero waste philosophy. The leftover food from the children’s meals go to the farm animals or the compost pile to benefit our class gardens.

Spring is filled with excitement about mud, flowers, and worms, to name a few. Jackets and mittens come off and suddenly our senses are heightened with new and stimulating materials around us.

Zero waste is about making intentional choices regarding the resources we use, the life cycle of those resources and materials, and the trash we send to the landfill. 

Snow is a wonderful loose part for young children during the winter season. This year the dry snow has not been ideal for making snowmen. By bringing snow inside, the children were able to shape it more easily as its consistency changed in the warmer atmosphere.

One of the best things about winter is when the sunshine falls on the snow and creates a breathtaking sparkle. We wanted to highlight this beauty in an art project.

Our school is located on a hobby farm, and with the joys of chicken snuggles and goat petting, there is also sadness when we lose a pet. We celebrate the life of an animal that has died at school. The children get to see the animal that died, help bury it, share what they think happened, and paint a rock for the grave.

After making many changes to lessen our school’s environmental footprint, we now create little to no trash each month. Involving the preschool families at the beginning of the school year helps tremendously in maintaining a low-waste, sustainable school.