Why Place-Connected Learning Is the Missing Link in Early Childhood Sustainability Education

“Is the ocean under the sandpit?”

The question came during a World Ocean Day activity at a regional early childhood service. The children had been making jellyfish from recycled materials and singing songs about coral reefs. But when that question surfaced—from a child who had never seen the sea—it gave the educator pause.

They realised something essential:

In trying to teach sustainability, they had accidentally taught that nature lives somewhere else.

Far away. Out there. In books and posters and problems too big for little hands to touch.

🌿 Reconnecting Sustainability to Place

In early childhood education and care, sustainability is not just a principle to tick off. It’s a living, breathing part of our curriculum. But for many young children, sustainability can feel abstract—like something that happens somewhere else, or something meant for grown-ups.

That’s where place-connected lea...