“Where are we right now?”
“Fruit and Vegetable Planet”
“Do you want to return to Planet Earth?”
“Yes!”
In an effort to cultivate the habit of vegetarianism among its young students, Tzu Chi Great Love PreSchool held the “Fruit and Vegetable Planet” series of activities for the first time during the June school holidays this year. During a period of about three months, the children participated in immersive and fun activities, which included building the planet from scratch, collection of Fruit and Vegetable passports, crossing the tunnel, riding the space shuttle, dressing up as cute little animals, etc. The series of thoughtfully planned activities aimed to spur the little ones into keeping a vegetarian diet during the entire “space odyssey”.
On 4th September 2017, the 90-day trip to the “Fruit and Vegetable Planet” was finally brought to a fruitful conclusion. To celebrate this joyous occasion, the PreSchool specially organised a completion ceremony, to celebrate the 4- to 6-year-olds’ return from the Fruit and Vegetable Planet back to Earth. The children who were dressed up as various animals on the foreign planet were also restored to their human child form.
As a recognition for the children’s efforts in sustaining a vegetarian diet for three months, which was not an easy feat, the childcare centre’s principal, Audrey Koh (pictured below), specially presented “Fruit and Vegetable Astronaut” awards to many of the little “astronauts”.
Among these accolades was the “Most Remarkable Fruit and Vegetable Astronaut” award, which was issued to a total of 16 children who had attained a remarkable record of eating 100% vegetarian meals for 90 straight days.
Would the kids continue to keep a vegetarian diet after they departed from the Fruit and Vegetable Planet? Teacher Au Foong Yee expressed with confidence that after their return to Earth, these children would become members of the “Earth Rescue Ambulance”, each bearing an important mission as a “guardian” of our fragile planet. The teachers would also continue to advocate vegetarianism among their young charges in school.
“What is inside a bowl of wanton noodles?”
“Char Siew! Wantons!”
“What are wantons made from?”
“Chicken meat… pork…… prawns……”
“If we want to keep our planet healthy, what should we do?”
Some of the children answered, “Eat vegetarian”, whilst others answered, “We must love animals!”
The key message being conveyed in this beautiful exchange between the teacher and the children is that, in every meat-based dish, there is an animal, and each animal represents a precious life and is also a friend of the children.
Ha Zi Yang, who hails from a family that practises vegetarianism, said, “Even after (returning from the Fruit and Vegetable Planet), I will continue to eat only vegetarian meals. (By not eating meat), we can help to save many animals.”
Precocious little Justin Tay shared that even though his father would occasionally ask him to eat meat, he would tell him: “I don’t want to eat meat.” His reason for abstaining from meat was surprisingly simple: he did not want to break the hearts of the mummy animals by killing their children for food.
Actually, many of the children did not have a clear understanding towards vegetarianism. Teacher Chen Li Hua (pictured below, right) shared that some of the children innocently thought that so long as they ate vegetables, they were practising vegetarianism, and continued to eat fish and meat.
Thus, during the “Fruit and Vegetable Planet” series of activities, the teachers adopted a variety of creative teaching mediums, such as story-telling and videos, to enable the children to better understand what vegetarianism is about.
In addition, the children also took part in an activity to simulate being cooped-up chicks. As they personally experienced how uncomfortable it felt to be cooped up in a crowded cage with other “chicks”, they were able to develop an empathy for the suffering of livestock.
“Let’s all eat vegetarian. Let’s love animals together…”
In the completion ceremony, the nursey and kindergarten classes performed two sign language songs about love and kindness. Finally, under the guidance of their teachers, the children were individually “parachuted” down and went through a “space tunnel”, for a safe journey back to Earth. The “Fruit and Vegetable Planet” series of activities were brought to a fruitful conclusion amidst a joyful chorus of children’s laughter and chatter.
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