Sustainability

This video is just to show true sustainability. The bee glove is about 28 years old and still going strong. The carboard beehive only gave up the ghost after 27 years, and now I have a brand new replacement that should last me till my action rhyme days are done.

 A request by a preschool to do an National Arts Council Art Education Programme on the theme of SUSTAINABILITY has got me thinking about what sustainability really means and how we might effectively communicate that to preschoolers. I found some stories that might work - some folktales and some created stories. I thought it might be useful to share.

SMALL PENGUIN AND THE GLOBAL WARMING MONSTER

I created this story in 2017 for WWF Singapore. We taught it to teenagers who were going tonto libraries to share it with children. I'm dusting this off along with the feltboard penguins and sea creatures ready to tell it again. This was created to be specific to Singapore, but it would be easy to adapt it to other countries.

Small Penguin and the Global Warming Monster.pdf

Download PDF • 508KB

THE TAILOR'S COAT

An old favourite - a fairly modern folktale that emerged from a Jewish folksong. I am going to use a wonderful rich brown length of Harris Tweed given to me by my dear friend the late (and much missed) George (Seoras) MacPherson on one of my visits to him and his wife Morag in Skye. I photographed this length of tweed and then used Canva to create feltboard pieces that looked almost like it.

The Tailor's Coat.pdf

Download PDF • 112KB

STONE SOUP

My version of stone soup features one young man and one old woman, but it's easy enough to create a version where everyone in the village contributes to the pot - making stone soup truly delicious. This could be used to teach children

about using up all the food we have, rather than wasting food and buying more. Perhaps the carrots are a little soft and the beans a little bendy, but waste not want not - they can make a delicious soup.

SLOPS

This Welsh folktale retold in this picture book by my friend and teacher Margaret Read MacDonald is all about being a good neighbour, but it is also about how you can use your waste vegetables to create compost.

TOO MUCH SKY

This Nigerian folktale is told beautifully here by English storyteller and outdoor education specialist Danny English. It teaches us about the foolishness of greed and the wisdom of using just as much as you need but no more.