Giggletree is a well-established boutique company that supports childcare centres Australia wide through the provision of Childcare Consulting, Childcare Management and new centre setups. 

1. Sustainable Practices
https://www.giggletree.com.au/

2. This area was not very big in early childhood before National
Quality Standards came into place, as it was not really covered
under the old regulations or under NCAC quality areas. So, we
need to start thinking how we can turn our centres into more
sustainable places. You might already have started putting
things into place or have some great ideas. Below are some ideas
that can help you brainstorm.

3. Recycle your rubbish – A good idea is having different bins for
different things (e.g a bin for recyclable items boxes, plastic containers
anything that could be recycled, a bin for food scraps and a bin for all
other items.) There are many companies out there that have child-
sized recyle bins that you can have in rooms for chlidren and
Educators to use. Children can be responsible for the recycling
program in your room. You may choose to keep some items to re-use,
such as scrap paper etc, and then you can dispose of the other items
appropriately.

4. Compost bins – start collecting all your food scraps and place in a compost
bin, make sure you involve the children in this by having a container
children can put their food scrapes in and get them to help fill up the
compost bin and explain to them how it works.
Worm farms – you can place your food scrapes in this and then either sell
the worm juice to parents or use it on your own gardens.
Vegie Patch – this is a great way to teach children where vegetables comes
from. Children can see the whole cycle by placing their food scrapes into
the compost bin and worm farm which then helps their vegetables grow,
they can then see how the vegetables are then used in cooking.

5. Look at the ways you can recycle & conserve energy and water, this
could be a great discussion with the older groups of children that way
they have their input also make sure you are involving families and
all educators in these discussions as well. From these discussions you
can create your services environmental strategy. It is vital that you
don’t just have the above items just sitting there and educators not
implementing them and embedding it into their program, otherwise it
is just a tokenistic view on sustainability.
The other area to look at, is when doing activities with children and
extending their interests use as much natural resources or recycled
resources that you can. Below are just a few ideas:-

6. Painting Ideas - Instead of painting on paper, collect leaves and use
them to paint on or use leaves, twigs etc to paint with. You could ask
parents to see if they can bring in large leaves from home. You could
also paint on rocks
When doing collage you could use a lot of natural resources, or make
things with these resources like a fairy garden. How about making
blocks from driftwood or other wood found in parks. This is a great
way to get families involved in your programme by asking them help
you search for wood. You can use sticks, leaves pebbles etc with play
dough or clay.

7. Contact us
Call us - 07 3204 1102
http://giggletree.com.au/