AsiaOne 17 Oct 15;
SINGAPORE - A new programme aimed at educating pre-school children about keeping the environment clean has been launched by National Environment Agency (NEA) and South East Community Development Council.
The Young Eco Heroes @ South East Programme was launched in partnership with Cedar Girls' Secondary School, and two storybooks written by students from the school have also been produced to accompany it.
The aim of the books is to teach pre-school children the importance of binning litter properly and keeping the environment clean, NEA said in a statement on Saturday.
Under the Young Eco Heroes @ South East Programme, pre-school children will receive complimentary sets of responsibility-themed storybooks through pre-school centres in the South East District.
The children will be encouraged to bring the storybooks home to read with their parents, so that they may influence their parents to also help keep the environment clean.
In addition, a teacher's tool kit, comprising larger-sized storybooks and easy-to-conduct lesson plans, will be used by teachers.
The two storybooks, titled 'Stubborn Stacy' and 'Responsible Roy', were authored by a team of students from Cedar Girls' Secondary School - Alyssa Goh, Natasha Khoo, Jamie Lim and Dorothy Teo.
The four Cedar Girls' Secondary School students also plan to visit pre-schools to conduct storytelling sessions.
Copies of the books will be available for loan at all public libraries.
A two-day South East Clean & Green SG50 is being held at OneKM Mall until Sunday.
New initiative aims to mould next generation of eco-heroes through storytelling
As part of the Young Eco Heroes at South East Programme, two storybooks teaching pre-schoolers to throw litter in bins and keep the environment clean, were unveiled.
Monica Kotwani, Channel NewsAsia 18 Oct 15;
SINGAPORE: Moulding the next generation of eco-heroes through creative story-telling - that is what a new initiative by the National Environment Agency and the South East Community Development Council hopes to achieve.
The initiative was launched on Saturday (Oct 17) by Social and Family Development Minister Tan Chuan-Jin and Mayor of South East District, Dr Maliki Osman.
Two storybooks to teach pre-schoolers to throw litter in bins and keep the environment clean, were unveiled as part of the Young Eco Heroes at South East Programme. The books, titled Stubborn Stacy and Responsible Roy, were written by students from Cedar Girls' Secondary School. They will be made available to kindergartens and pre-schools in the district, as well as libraries and mobile libraries islandwide.
The initiative was launched at the district's Clean and Green SG50 Carnival, where kids were taught to make toys from recyclables such as milk cartons. At the event, Mr Tan also urged more people to take ownership for the cleanliness of public spaces. He invited them to take part in the Bright Spots Challenge, to "adopt" common areas and keep them clean.
"The target was 500 by the end of this year. We already have 470 and it's increasing and we'll be more than happy for it to increase beyond 500," said Mr Tan. "I commend all partners for their initiatives and strongly encourage more people to come forward to participate in this Bright Spots activity."
- CNA/hs
