In parka and a hat far down her eyes, Solve Strupstad stands with snow up to her knees. The four-year-old has an impossible mission. He will show the kindergarten’s pride; the kitchen garden. A kitchen garden that is under 15 centimeters of fresh snow, so Solve needs some time alone to think. Solve Strupstad remembers well what was in the boxes before the snow came. At least when he gets to think about it a bit. Photo: Eirik Haukenes / news – Waste and garbage management was our first topic, and after that it just got worse, says Inger Tøndel, director of the Nordlandet kindergarten in Aure. Inger Tøndel is a board member at Nordlandet Kindergarten in Aure. Photo: Eirik Haukenes / news After two years of hard work from both staff and children, they have achieved something that more and more schools and kindergartens are working to achieve. They have been Green Flag certified. Self-sufficient in food Away from the snow-covered pallet racks, Solve has found a solution. Small shoes wade through the snow as he points and guides out as he remembers it was this summer. With such a crop, the nursery is self-sufficient in many of the vegetables they need for large parts of the year. Kristian Wigum Hagen and the other children visit the hens daily to see that they have food, water and good days. Photo: Eirik Haukenes / news At the other end of the play area stands a small house with netting around it. Before entering there, shoe bags must be worn. – It’s so that we don’t get poo on our shoes. They poop so much inside that house, explains Kristian Wigum Hagen. He is going into the hen house to get eggs. How early should one learn about sustainability and the environment? It’s never too early. School age is a great time to learn about sustainability and the environment. Adults get to think about sustainability and the environment. Show result The children have a chicken coop by the playground and make shortbread from leftover porridge. Video: Eirik Haukenes / news More will be environmentally certified Linda Cecilie Dale is project manager for Grønt Flagg FEE Norway. The foundation currently has close to 900 nurseries and schools across the country that are or are in the process of becoming environmentally certified. Linda Cecilie Dale is project manager for Grønt Flagg FFE Norway Photo: Grønt Flagg FFE Norway – We see an increase in inquiries and curiosity about Grønt Flagg as a digital tool for kindergartens and schools that want to engage children and young people in active and practical environmental measures, says Dale. – Attitudes that last a lifetime Seven eggs are brought in from the henhouse today. In any case, six of them save all the way to the collection box in the nursery’s fridge. What is broken is placed in a plastic barrel behind the nursery. Seven eggs were today’s delivery. Leah Ness Hestsveen and the other kids get to help decide what they will be used for. Photo: Eirik Haukenes / news – It’s old food that turns into soil, explains the guide from the snow-covered kitchen garden. And Solve knows that they can use the soil to fill the pallet frames in the spring. Because throughout this path towards certification, the children have been close. – That is the most important thing. This depends on attitudes and values, says director Inger Tøndel. She believes that this particular time in a child’s life is the time when they most easily adopt basic attitudes which they then take with them further into life. An environmentally friendly way of thinking can start in kindergarten and last a lifetime, she believes. An inspiration for others There is a lunch break by the bonfire outside in the play area. Fruit and home-made crackers are eaten. The recipe is simple: leftover oatmeal and some spices. There are mutterings about eggnog in the ranks. They have eggs and today the mayor is here to brag about them. – They have worked hard and well and achieved a lot, boasts the mayor of Aure municipality, Hanne-Berit Brekken. Her hope is that Nordlandet kindergarten can now be an inspiration for the other kindergartens and schools in the municipality. But was it scrambled eggs? No, not from today’s egg delivery. But there will be new ones tomorrow. Mayor of Aure municipality, Hanne-Berit Brekken, is proud of what management Inger Tøndel and the others in Nordlandet kindergarten have achieved. Now a green flag is flying in the bitterly cold north wind. Photo: Eirik Haukenes / news
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Eggs from our own hens and shortbread from leftover porridge – more nurseries will become environmentally friendly
