What might be some appropriate content learning outcomes for the systems learning component of ecological literacy in Kindergarten?

- Identifies typical activities of local animals in their natural habitats
- Identifies appropriate locations in which to run, swim, play a game (i.e. gives reasons related to natural systems)
- Identifies types of plant matter used by local animals to build their homes
- Identifies reasons for off-limits areas, no-trash rules, and guidelines for using the wormbin, for example
- Identifies appropriate behaviors for designated play areas, school garden, conservation zones, etc.
- Identifies native plants which attract local fauna to the school playground
- Describes ways humans can minimize impact in places shared with other living creatures (e.g. stay on the path to prevent compacting of earth)
- Describes personal benefits of spending time outdoors/in natural spaces
- Differentiates between humane and inhumane relationships with animals
- Differentiates between outdoor places they feel safe and those that they feel are dangerous
- Suggests potential uses of walls, mowed lawns, pavements, stony paths, abandoned lots, or railways lines to other living things
- Demonstrates awareness of “foreign objects”, i.e. human-created objects which have not been looked after (e.g. by picking up garbage along a trail which they walk once a week)
- Demonstrates importance of understanding animal body language by acting non-agressively in human-animal interactions
- Demonstrates understanding of reasons why animals in their local habitat communicate with each other
- Demonstrates knowledge of local ecosystems by creating detailed drawings with both living and non-living things in relation to each other
- Demonstrates understanding of how natural materials can be used to create art (sandcastles, stone patterns)
- Demonstrates understanding (rearrange to stay alive)
- Uses appropriate vocabulary to describe parts of local plants or members of a local biome
- Uses appropriate vocabulary to talk about tools or equipment that people use to recycle matter or compost
- Uses appropriate vocabulary to explain observed natural phenomenon (e.g. tide rising, sky growing darker)
- Uses appropriate vocabulary to discuss changes to their local ecosystem through the seasons/year