Earth Friends has enlivened the classrooms of The Peppermint Tree with curiosity, wonder and activities that allow the children to discover their connection to our fascinating planet Earth.

Each lesson asks a curious question that the children explore through hands on activities, songs, and art, and our school has embraced Earth Friends and is learning how to be more earth friendly while teaching the children about the impact we can make at our school. With inspiration from the Earth Friends curriculum, we installed rain barrels, and now the children experience firsthand how rain water feeds our gardens. The children feed the worms in our compost while reducing the waste from their lunches and snacks. The Earth Friends lessons have shown the children how important and interconnected the work they are doing is—and when they pick and then eat the tomatoes, peppers, and other harvests from our garden they reap the tangible benefits.

Through Earth Friends, our students learn how to be patient, to work together, to care for living things and each other, and earn a sense of pride and self confidence in having made a difference to our school and the world. They also share these accomplishments at home through the weekly family communication about our lessons and we come together as a community with meaningful family celebrations.

We intertwine our Earth Friends learning throughout our day – so it is not a separate subject it is who we are! We are Earth Friends!