As a part of my year and a half-long internship for the Presidio Trust in San Francisco, I gave many presentations to coworkers, visiting professionals, and adult volunteers. One of my favorite presentation series was with Cow Hollow Preschool in the Presidio. The first time I worked with this school was when they were planting a tree with our landscaping staff for their garden. The kids loved the compost activity I created, so I was invited back to teach the other classes.
Excited to be using my Human Development background to design children’s curriculum, I gathered props and created a flip book to talk about how compost is made in an interactive, 4-year old friendly way. The flip book was made out of salvaged office materials and had pockets and pieces that represented the various components needed for good compost (i.e. green stuff, brown stuff, water, and air, translating to pictures of grass, dried leaves, a water stream, and a wind symbol). I had the preschoolers help me mixed together real compostable items as we talked about the critters who help break down the food that becomes compost.
We had so much fun that I was asked to create a digital newsletter with an activity for the parents to do with their children at home.
LARA ISAACSON 