Module 1
Caring for Our Children, Caring for Our Earth
Outcomes
Key Concepts
Background Information
Activity 1: Healthy Environmental Concepts
Activity 2: Environmental Perspectives & Values
Activity 3. Standing Up for Our Perspectives & Value
Activity 4: Getting into the Garden
Activity 5. Alejandro & His Earth
Activity 6. Good for Qur Bodies, Good for Our Earth
Next Steps: Ideas to Extend Practice
Handout A: Children's Activity Cards,
Handout B: Values & Perspectives
Handout C: Thoughts on Gardens
Handout D: The Food Guide Pyramid
--A Guide to Daily Food Choices
Handout E: Alejandro & His Earth
Handout F: Alejandro' s Environmental Issues

Module 2
Environmental Risks and Hazards
Outcomes
Key Concepts
Background Information
Activity 1: Children's Developmental Stages.
Activity 2: Is There Something in the Air?
Activity 3: An Apple a Day . . . Or Not?
Activity 4: The Unseen Hazard: Testing the Water.
Activity 5: Home Visit Checklist
Activity 6: A New Head Start Center: Green & Beautiful
Next Steps: Ideas to Extend Practice
Handout G: Children's Developmental Stages & Environmental Risks
Handout H- 1: Sally's Story-Group 1
Handout H-2: Juan's Story-Group 2
Handout H-3: Tehan's Story-Group 3
Handout H-4: Alicia's Story-Group 4
Handout I-1: Home Visit Checklist
Handout 1-2: Did You Know . . . ?

Module 3
Building Communities Which Consider the Seventh Generation
Outcomes
Key Concepts
Background Information
Activity 1: Hot Spots-Community Map
Activity 2. Community Helpers
Activity 3: It Happens at Home: Pollution or Prevention
Activity 4: Environmental Advertisements.
Activity 5: To Dispose or Reuse?
Activity 6. How Do We Get There?
Next Steps: Ideas to Extend Practice
Handout I: Environmental Laws & Regulations
Handout K: Home Situations
Handout L- 1: Be a Common-Sense Citizen
Handout L-2: Be a Common-Sense Parent
Handout M: The Environmental Balance Sheet
Handout N-1: Getting There in a Better Way-Walkers
Handout N-2: Getting There in a Better Way-Bicyclists
Handout N-3: Getting There in a Better Way-Car Poolers/ Public Transit Users

Continuing Professional Development

Resources
Head Start Publications and Services
General Publication
Environmental Education Resources
Toxics, Risks, and Hazards
Communities Building Healthy Environments
Organizations

A sparrow and an owl were sitting in a forest on a quiet winter day, when the snow began to fall. They sat for a while, listening' to the gentle breeze of the wind and wqtching as sparkling snowflakes covered the trees. Presently the sparrow flew over to the owl and said, "I have a question, Wise One. What is the weight of a snowflake?" The owl replied immediately, "Why it is nothing, next to nothing." "That is strange," said the sparrow "For just now I was looking at a huge, dead branch of a tree. It sat there for a long time, with snow piled on it. But then one snowflake landed on the branch, and the whole thing swooshed to the ground!"

Head Start programs are made up of many different children, their families and the staff who serve them. All of these people belong to communities, and communities exist within a natural environment. Our understanding of the relationship among all of these is very important.

Exploring and working with environmental issues can be exciting and enriching. It can also be very challenging-even scary. Earth is the ultimate in diversity, made up of many types of living things whose interaction is beautiful, mysterious, uplifting, and sometimes frightening. It is a system, growing and changing every day. Much is unknown. We do know there are toxic substances and dangerous behaviors-both can cause great harm. We must avoid these dangers and work to prevent the development of more toxins. The challenges are big. Often people fear that they can do nothing on their own. The problems seem overpowering.

Sustaining a Healthy Environment was written to demonstrate that, within the Head Start program, staff can do a great deal to ensure that children and families experience the best of the natural environment- right now. Even if you feel there is too much pollution, or some bureaucracy cannot be moved, there are small steps that you can take that will make the situation better in some way. You are the snowflake that brings down the dead wood!

Head Start staff are experts at making small changes, one at a time. An example is the child who enters the program unprepared for any group experience. Staff work with her, taking one step at a time. Day by day, she becomes a little less shy. By the end of the program year, she is chattering with friends and exploring the playground with gusto. Or take the family whose challenges seem overwhelming at first. But as the family, in collaboration with the Head Start program, looks at one issue at a time, the family's goals get closer to reality.

Sustaining a Healthy Environment is a technical guide in the Health series. The goal of this guide is to broaden staff members' understanding of the natural environment so they can better incorporate environmental enrichment and environmental protection into their programs. As we move from the 20th century into the 21st, we are realizing that the health of human beings depends on a healthy relationship with the natural environment. Environmental education must begin very young, and young children-happily-are enthusiastic about Earth and its many beings. They love to explore and learn about their fellow creatures.

We hope that this guide will make you more excited about environmental education, action, and protection. It will help you see the small steps you can take to protect your own health and that of the families you serve. You will see the strength of communities when they work
together. Every person is important in working to sustain this amazing environment for our children and for future generations.

Dig in!

• enrich Head Start program activities through environmental education;
• offer parents and children opportunities to learn about environmental health issues;
• increase their ability to identify hazards and prevent environmental illnesses and injuries;
• analyze their own program and come up with practices that protect the environment and prevent practices that damage the environment; and
• advocate for environmental health, environmental justice, and environmental protection in their conununities.

• Head Start directors, site coordinators, policy council/committee members, and others who choose products and establish priorities that can affect the environment;
• health staff who are the lead trainers and the liaisons with other agencies in working to get rid of hazards; and
• education and family services staff who explain environmental concepts to children and families.
 

• in requiring Head Start Centers to provide and encourage safe outdoor play for children
• in requiring all Head Start agencies to ensure that staff and volunteers follow safety practices and try to prevent injuries
• in providing safe and wholesome meals and snacks for children, emphasizing food quality, nutritional value and safe handling and storage
• in providing parents the opportunity to learn about occupational and environmental hazards
• in encouraging parents to advocate with other community members for improvements in their neighborhood, which might include protecting something in the local environment
• in providing for a Community Assessment to document a community's strengths, needs, and resources
• in requiring centers to be free of toxins and pollutants
• in attending to the quality of the water the program uses and the safe management of waste products
• in recognizing the importance of inclusive, multicultural programs that encourage children to explore and learn

Sustaining a Healthy Environment has five sections, including three training modules:

· Module 1: Caring for Our Children, Caring for Our Earth

Examines the Head Start program's overall goals in its work with children and families. The module explores ways that environmental concepts and environmental education can strengthen the services.
 
· Module 2: Environmental Risks and Hazards

Addresses staff members' ability to identify, understand, and alleviate environmental hazards, especially those relevant to their Head Start programs.
 
· Module 3: Building Communities Which Consider the Seventh Generation

Deals with community development and the big picture of environmental health now and in the future. It encourages Head Start staff to consider practices and policies in this light.

· Continuing Professional Development
 

Each module provides learning opportunities for workshop sessions (12-25 people) and coaching (two-three people). Each module has the following sections:

• Outcomes: The skills to be acquired by staff who participate in a module's activities.
• Key Concepts: The main ideas the module covers. These sections can be used as handouts or overheads.
• Background Information: Elaborates on the Key Concepts. This section can be used as a coaching resource or as an outline for a presentation to a group. Background Information sections can also be used for handouts or as overheads in workshop sessions.
• Questions for Discussion/Reflection: Listed at the end of each Background Information section. These questions can be used to initiate discussion in workshops and coaching sessions, or serve as prompts for staff journals.
• Learning Activities: Build the skills needed to achieve the module's outcomes. Managers can choose to use workshop activities, coaching activities, or a combination. Activities should be adapted to a group's size and composition: the management team, staff from one component area, or staff and board members together.
• Points to Consider: Issues listed at the end of each activity to keep in mind or to use as discussion prompts while working through the activity.
• Next Steps: Ideas to Extend Practice: Additional activities to reinforce the expected outcomes and help to transfer skills from the training sessions to the work setting.
• Handouts: Included at the end of each module. Trainers should reproduce the handouts as needed for participants.

Coaching		A training strategy that fosters the development of skills through tailored instruction, demonstrations, practice, and feedback. The activities are written for a coach to work closely with one to three participants.
Workshops		A facilitated group training strategy that fosters the development of skills through activities which build on learning through group interaction. These activities are written for up to 25 participants working in small or large groups with one or two trainers.
Next Steps: Ideas to Extended Practice		Activities assigned by the trainer immediately following the completion of the module to help participants review key information, practice skills, and examine their progress toward expected outcomes of the module.
Continuing Professional Development		Followup activities for the program to support continued staff development in the regular use of the skills addressed in a particular training guide. They include:  1) opportunities tailored to the participant to continue building on the skills learned in the training; and  2) ways to identify new skills and knowledge needed to expand and/or complement these skills through opportunities in such areas as in higher education, credentialing, or community educational programs.

Please Note: Coaching activities often require the participant(s) to go out into the workplace or the community to talk to others, observe others' behaviors, develop connections with resource people, or analyze an environmental problem. The times given in this include only the time the participant(s) and coach spend together.

After completing this module, participants will:

• understand important environmental concepts and discover how environmental health relates to their lives and their work;
• identify environmental issues that are important to the various as pects of the Head Start mission;
• enrich their program with services to children and families that use environmental knowledge and activities in various settings; and
• communicate compassionately and effectively about environmental issues with the variety of people involved in Head Start.

• We care about our environment, the physical space around us.
• We are part of an ecosystem made up of living beings in relationship with each other and with the natural phenomena of earth, water, energy, and air.
• We are interested in sustainable systems, those that can go on for many generations.

Families can develop useful skills through community environmental projects.

Developing positive personal health habits runs parallel to developing environmental practices for long-term health and safety. A wholistic health perspective requires attention to both.

A. Head Start and Environment Health

Head Start's mission is broad in its aim to develop healthy children, strong families, and supportive communities. Program staff have a commitment to:

• help children to grow and learn;
• help families to improve their well-being;
• build strong and supportive communities;
• attend to the health needs of children in partnership with families;
• support the short- and long-term health of families and staff.

1. How can attention to the environment and environmental concepts enrich Head Start activities?

2. What environmental hazards threaten the well-being of children, families and staff?

Children are inquisitive and active. They need to see and feel things, and the natural environment is full of interesting shapes, textures, and smells. Children enjoy learning about life by getting their hands dirty and seeing things grow. They also have a great need for activity, to be outdoors to run, shout, play, and climb. Head Start programs can-and do-draw many resources from the natural environment to enrich the children's experience in the program. Programs must also be careful to protect children from hazards that they might encounter in their explorations of the world.

Most communities are faced with at least a few situations where the environment needs to be cleaned up. Activities that protect, enhance, or beautify the physical space where families live offer opportunities for developing skills in planning, organizing, and communicating. Families can learn from and feel success from participating in community gardening, cleaning a trash-strewn site in their neighborhood, or recognizing and removing toxic substances from their homes. They can develop very use ful skills in communicating and negotiating with public officials responsible for environmental protection.

Health education in Head Start programs focuses on issues that are important in the present and the future. Healthy practices usually have some immediate wellness rewards. We talk with parents and staff about the importance of developing healthy patterns of eating and exercising early in life, with the intention of preventing later chronic illnesses. Beyond these, a healthy environment also gives pleasure and nourishment in the moment: walking along a tree-shaded street, drinking cool, clean water, watching animals at play. Lifestyles we choose also have an impact on our environment over the long haul. For example:

• Being less dependent on our cars leads to cleaner air and improved physical fitness.
• Overpackaging and disposable products can lead to solid waste/ garbage problems in the future.

When asked about their environment, people might think about natural features, social features, or both. While we recognize that these realms are tightly linked, this training guide focuses on the natural environment. We define this as human beings, the land, water, air, energy, and wildlife-all of which make up the planet.

While our environment is the space around us, the ecosystem describes the relationships among organisms and their environments-the web of life. Communities of organisms have evolved on this planet over billions of years, continually using and recycling the same molecules of minerals, water, and air.

Beginning in the 1970s; environmental activists, scientists and policy- makers began to use the term sustainability to discuss the linked problems concerning issues of the environment (the health of nature) and development (the progress of humanity). A sustainable practice is one that can be carried on for an indefinite period without harming any part of the ecological system.

A thorough understanding of the environment requires understanding ecosystems and how to sustain them.

C. Values, Culture, and the Environment

When a person understands environmental concepts, the next step is to make choices to incorporate environmental values into daily life. In the Head Start staff member's daily life, this means planning activities for children. that help them understand the environment, and give them a sense of responsibility and appreciation for the environment. It also means working with families and communities to build or Sustain healthy local environments. To carry out this work, staff must be aware of the process that people go through in developing an environmental consciousness.

At the first level, people are interested in the comfort of their environments, what they can feel day-to-day. They want a secure social environment: enough money, food, clothing. They also pay attention to the attractiveness of the physical environment: their homes, city, town, or
reservation. When people think beyond the immediate environment of their day-to-day lives, they often think about a beautiful "natural" place where they find peace, quiet, and beauty. This might be a local park or a distant wilderness area where they go on extended camping or hiking trips.

A broader perspective on the environment often brings fear as people realize that all is not necessarily as it appears. For example, they realize that the grass which is so lovely and green was grown with chemicals that have now polluted the drinking water. They worry that now they need to buy bottled water. They might become aware of "bad air" days or the hazards of lead paint in their homes or schools. This focus is on specific health threats to people from toxics that might harm children or adults.

When people think beyond comfort or harm to humans, they begin to think about the ecosystem-not only the human community, but also other inhabitants and aspects of the planet, including animal and plant species, oceans, grasslands, and the air around Earth.

Many things influence how a person thinks of and relates to the environment. Qne important influence is the person's culture. Ethnic background, language, geographic region, and economics all play a part in defining a person's culture and how she. looks at the social world. Culture affects our choices in food and in health services. It also affects our attitudes and behavior around environmental issues.