Absolute success! We just completed our 4 day eco kids sessions and I couldn’t believe that we could have packed so much in and still left tongues wagging for more. And I still can’t believe the energy levels of primary school children! In fact, one supporter of the gardens and workshops commented that we should run FULL day programs in future – these kids need tiring out it seems!

Happy eco-workshop kids - Little Green Frogs

Cathering Labrooy, our intern from UPM, worked steadily on putting the programs, notes and resources together for 3 weeks prior to running the programs. Having grown up with children all her life, especially amongst her mother’s kindergarten kids, Cat was a natural in holding the kids interest and attention for long enough to finish her sentence.

She started Day 1 with introducing the concept of ecosystems and the kids got to build their very own terrarium, basically a self-containing garden ecosystem in a jar. The kid layered their own individual jars with coloured pebbles, moss, soil and a plant and were given terse instructions to LOOK AFTER their little garden. The kids also were invited to dirty their hands in earth as they each a go at planting sunflower seeds to bring home.

Building a mini terrarium

Happy kids with their mini ecosysyem, terrariums

Day 2 perhaps didn’t go quite as smoothly in Cat’s eyes. “Spice tea just isn’t meant for kids” she quipped at the end of the class. We had them brewing their own cups of spice tea and making fruit salad as their snacks – novel, healthy and fun we thought but we couldn’t have been more wrong. Spice + Tea brought out furrowed eyebrows and much discontent and well, the fruit salad was just ignored. An introduction to healthy eating..Jamie Oliver inspired shall be the title of my next holiday workshop for kids!

Kids using the batu tumbuk to crush spices in Kids Workshop

They also learned to colour pictures using natural materials like annatto, turmeric and blue pea. They loved the fact that flowers, root and seeds could colour their favourtie pictures!

Cat redeemed her worksop by Day 3 when the kids launched into recycling, vermicomposting and handmade paper.

The kids raced against each others team to sort out rubbish in to ‘recyclable’ and ‘non-recyclable’ piles. It was great just to teach kids that straws and tetra paks of ribena can not be recycled – and thus, I dont want to see this trash in my ‘Plastic’ recycling bins at the Spice Garden any more! Yes, this was my little hidden agenda – how to keep the spice garden bins tidy

Show N Tell at Eco Kids Workshop

At first the kids looked in disbelief as Cat ushered them to soil their fingers and feel the smooth and slippery exterior of the worms on their skin. By the end of the session, they were proudly holding their new pets and vowing to look after them at home.

It was such an eye opener for the kids to see paper being created before their eyes through a somewhat lengthy process of soaking paper, blending, soaking again and lifting out with a netted frame before leaving it to dry. And then of course to colour a picture using turmeric roots, annatto seeds and blue pea flowers was just such a novel and special thing to do – they loved it!

Day 4 was the icing on the cake with making  their own orange pomanders [using oranges, cloves and ribbons] and to top it all of, we had a very special soap making activity. We had purchased a home made soap set on line and Cat ingeniously devised a way to involve all the kids by allowing them to mix their own colours to produce fabulously bright blobs of soap.

Penang pomanders using oranges and soap

Mixing colours for handmade soap

Each day came replete with worksheets, games, snacks and a load of fun. A huge shout out to Cat and her assistants who just ran the classes so enthusiastically and professionally. Of course my dear, you have just opened up a box that can never be closed again. Will you be back next semester to run another fantastic holiday workshop for us?

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