Kindergarten teacher in Hai Duong uses trash to beautify her school

Beautiful school

The clean and beautiful space of Dong Tam Kindergarten (Ninh Giang town) impressed me at first sight. However, in the corner of the school yard there was a rough tree stump lying around. I wondered, why did this school leave this tree stump here, making the space look ugly?

Teacher Dinh Thi Thu Huyen, the school's principal, seemed to read my mind and happily explained: "This tree fell after storm No. 3. The school kept the stump because it had its own plan for it. Almost all types of solid waste or discarded items are turned into decorations and learning tools by the teachers here."

Ms. Huyen pointed to the corner of the yard where some teachers were busy painting old car tires and introduced: "There! The tires were thrown away, we asked them to decorate them with a little color to create beautiful flower pots. Behind the school, the tires were converted into swings, and in the corner of the library, they were turned into desks for children."

I call the teachers of this school "wizards" with their skillful hands. Because regardless of solid waste or discarded items, they "magically" transform them into eye-catching decorative products. Above the green trees in the school are hung colorful "bird's nest" models made from leftover pieces of wood collected from outside. In front of each classroom door, cardboard is cut and pasted with colored paper by teachers into a series of frames depicting nature, animals, and writing sentences teaching children to be good... In the corridors, wind chimes and decorative flower clusters are also made from pieces of wood, dry branches, nylon rope, and old bicycle rims.

Entering the school's "Art Creation Room", I was impressed by the room filled with eye-catching decorative themes. Several old, broken bed frames were cut and painted to form a giant piano. Nearly a dozen pots, pans, and woks that were deformed, which seemed like they could only be sold as scrap metal, were "transformed" into musical instruments for children to play with in a variety of bright colors. In the corner of the room, a large tank model was made from cardboard. The artistic landscape paintings on the wall that the teacher and students cut and pasted were also made from tree branches, dry straw, scraps of fabric, and nylon...

Spending an hour visiting the school, I could not count the number of decorations that the teachers here have created from trash and leftover items. Ms. Bui Thi Hieu, a specialist from the Department of Education and Training of Ninh Giang district, said: "All 24 kindergartens in the district are like this. Teachers and students everywhere are constantly creative."

In the same district of Ninh Giang, we visited Ninh Hai Kindergarten (Binh Xuyen commune). In the corner of the school yard shaded by green trees, several teachers were instructing students to use toilet paper rolls, foam, and colored pencils to make pencil cases, binoculars, and flower cups...

In another corner, some children are huddled together learning how to make seed jars using plastic bottles, straw and yarn. "The children are smart and quick. I only taught them one day and they knew how to make them the next day," said Bui Thi Tuan Anh, a teacher of class 5-year-old B.

Seeing another group of students playing happily, I approached. It turned out that they were engrossed in playing a game of hopscotch on a table made from leftover construction plastic that had been thrown away on the side of the road. The group next to them were competing to play a game of "recognizing letters" drawn on the caps of mineral water bottles.

In every classroom, I see the presence of solid waste and surplus items that have been "transformed" into decorative objects and learning tools. In the "role assignment corner" of a classroom, some students are enthusiastically learning to be housewives, farmers... with a gas stove, pots, pans, cups, hoes, and shovels made from cardboard.

"The school is so beautiful! The children have space to be creative, experience and play," said teacher Trinh Thi Nep, the school's principal.

Good future

Returning to Gia Loc district, I visited Dong Quang Kindergarten (Nhat Quang commune) - a place that many people call "the happy school". In the school yard, everywhere you can see flower gardens, green trees and a series of corners to experience, explore, learn about nature, and professions in society...

Principal Tran Thi Bich Xoè said the school is thousands of square meters wide but "it's hard to find an empty space" because everywhere is filled with spaces created for students to explore and experience. There are many but not messy, but arranged scientifically and neatly. Students here love coming to school. They can study, play, and freely create under the caring guidance of teachers... All of this has created a happy school.

All the experience corners are basically made from solid waste, natural materials and discarded items from families. "Many people who come here for the first time don't know that we have to invest a lot of money to make these things, but in fact they are all products... created by staff, teachers, students and with the support of parents," Ms. Xoè emphasized.

In every classroom, library at this school, on both sides of the hallway, under the stairs, on the railings... everywhere there are items made from scraps of wood, bottles, computers, televisions, broken pots and pans, straw, popsicle sticks, plastic pipes, jars, urns, cardboard, scraps of fabric... These trash and surplus items do not dirty the school but are created in "a myriad of shapes" to beautify the school, useful for the learning and teaching of teachers and students.

Ms. Xoè doesn't remember how much trash and excess items the school has "consumed", but once a week, parents will collect all kinds of old things and bring them to the school. All the teachers in the school diligently collect dry branches, jars, wood, fabric, scrap metal, plastic... and bring them back to school. When the school runs out of space, they "take" everything home to store and gradually create new ones.

"This has contributed to reducing waste and raising environmental awareness among staff, teachers, parents and people. We want to convey a message to everyone that all objects can be reused and turned into useful items," Ms. Xoè emphasized.

In class 5B, teacher Vu Thi Lanh is guiding students to experience and learn about the life cycles of animals, plants, and insects. Each topic is based on scrap wood collected from carpentry workshops, then shaped into circles and painted with images of plants and animals. Students seem to enjoy this friendly and familiar lesson.

On the classroom walls, Ms. Lanh pasted panels, posters, and poems made from the above items to teach students how to classify waste. "Compared to previous years, preschool students are now more agile and intelligent thanks to their comprehensive participation in creative and experiential activities. All students in this class know how to identify and classify waste. We will certainly have a generation of better citizens in the near future," Ms. Lanh commented.

In Nhat Quang commune, I visited Nhat Tan Kindergarten because I heard that there are new models created from a part of solid waste and surplus materials such as bamboo...

As soon as I arrived at the school gate, I saw the models of the "Central Highlands Communal House", "The Sovereignty Marker of Truong Sa Archipelago"... which were built very large and beautifully. Under the "Sovereignty Marker of Truong Sa Archipelago", the students sat attentively listening to the teacher introduce the history of the nation.

Principal Pham Thi Thuy showed off that all the models above were made by staff and teachers themselves. The school strives to basically bring social activities into the experience areas. Making the most of available natural materials and excess solid waste to build these experience areas.

"The school's goal is that every day students come to school, they feel happy, are free to explore, be creative, practice self-service skills, and learn about environmental protection from a young age... Their future will therefore be better, they will live decently, responsibly, and be useful to their homeland and country," Ms. Thuy emphasized.