It was orangutan Caring Week from 11-18th November, so the children and I were thinking about these primates; where they're from and why we need to look after them. We also learnt about the crucial subject of plastic pollution again – repetition is key with people so young.
When I asked the children what they thought plastic was, they said, 'bottles and stuff that fruit is wrapped in' - excellent - but it wasn't until one child shouted, 'cheese' that the teachers and I giggled. I could envisage a French man nodding his head at this comment, although it would, of course, be untrue. British cheese has come on a long way over the years.
Some of the toddlers had covered plastic pollution in our workshop last week, so they were pretty quick to tell me when asked, that plastic must go in the recycling bin. The picture of the recycling truck covered in pieces of soft plastic - created by the children earlier in the term - fixed on the classroom wall in the new 'Conservation Area', was a real help when explaining the difference between a regular refuse bin, and a recycling bin.
By the end of the session, these lovely little people were not only telling ME about plastic pollution, but they were also saying that orangutans live in 'Indonesia' - amazing - and that they're 'endangered' because humans are cutting down their trees. It was a great workshop, and you can see for yourself that the art they produced tells many colourful tales.
