Khadija, our European Solidarity Corps Volunteer, recently implemented her mini-project between the preschools “Libeň monsters” and “Vyšehrad Monsters”.

From June 15 to 17, Khadija Aliyeva implemented her “Little Eco-Activists” mini-project within the framework of the Volunteering for Community Empowerment project, which she is volunteering for the International Young Naturefriends organization (IYNF) in 2020-2021.
The 3-day project was held with kids from “Libeň monsters” and “Vyšehrad Monsters” preschools in Prague, Czech Republic, based on the “Little eco-activists” project run by the Nature Friends Azerbaijan (NFA) in Azerbaijan.
Libeň Monsters is a unique preschool, operating on the basis of a preschool club with an all-day program. It follows the idea of ​​forest kindergartens, modified however for the natural environment of the city. Children spend most of their time outdoors, near Libeň island and in other parks of Prague. They also go for trips and do not avoid the urban environment. The methodology is based on the Framework Education Program for Preschool Education, thus fully complying with the requirements for subsequent enrollment at any primary school. The all-day program is in English, organized by our international team of teachers. 

Waste recycling was the subject of the project implemented by Khadija, our European Solidarity Corps volunteer and the executive member of NFA together with Katarina Ivković, an European Solidarity Corps volunteer from Serbia of the mentioned preschool.
Kids aged 4-6 had fun and learned about the topic on the first and second days of the project in various beautiful parks of Prague.  
The volunteers had an interesting group building game to get acquainted with the kids, such that everybody should have said their names with special gestures and others should have repeated them.
During a short picnic, the kids both fed their stomachs and gathered their strength for the next games.
Afterwards, in the circle the kids imitated sounds of the natural phenomenon introduced by the volunteers. Their reactions proved that they are good observers of nature.

In the course of the game, we noticed the crying Earth approaching the kids. She said she was crying, because she was covered with garbage by human beings. The kids were thinking about how to help the Earth, which was disturbed by garbage. Just then, the Recycling symbol appeared. Everyone was curious to find out who she was. As a result of the meeting of the Earth and Recycling symbol, the kids learned a lot about the meaning of this symbol, what they could recycle or not, the reasons, and how to begin to do so.
Once informed, the kids already knew how to help the Earth. So they eagerly collected all the rubbish from on the Earth and threw it into the colored recycling bins.
The Earth was happy for being free of garbage, the kids were happy for helping the Earth.
Informative games about ecology and recycling, paper bags in colors of containers for glass, plastic, paper, metal of the preschool were helpful to make this scenario even more fun.
The mission of the heroes who saved the Earth was not over yet. This time, they took colored paper and crayons to enliven the Mother Nature they imagined in their drawings.

It was amazing to observe how strong and creative their imagination was, while they explained what they had drawn. Interestingly, although the volunteers asked them to draw Mother Nature, in their imagination nature even was in a father’s role. Some kids have even created nature as their parents.
On the third day of the project, an exhibition of their drawings from the past 2 days was held. Paintings were shown in a big picnic, which was organized by the preschool team and attended by the parents of the kids in Vyšehradské sady, one of the most beautiful parks in Prague.
You can see right away that kids gained new knowledge and had fun during these days, when you see them eagerly showing their drawings to their parents.

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