A Montessori school has introduced a project to teach children how to “make plants their pets”.

Children, aged one and a half years to five years and six months at Mongrace Montessori House, have been planting a sapling, learning to water it, taking care of the plant and observing their terrarium.

A month ago, the children were given the project of growing plants and soil in a glass bowl or container, creating a terrarium (like an aquarium, but for plants instead of fish).

The terrariums were displayed in the school last week on Children’s Day.

The environment is around them, not somewhere far off, and the responsibility to protect it lies not just with adults but with children too, said the head of the school.

“We are teaching the children to make a terrarium with soil and plants. They are learning how plants and sometimes other organisms survive and also learning to take care of them,” said Sanjana Vakharia, director, Mongrace Montessori House (Short Street).

“Children as young as ours have to understand that caring for the environment is not just of their parents or the gardener but of theirs, too. When they create something on their own, they get involved in it,” said Vakharia.

“Each child can have a small green space in their room or balcony, and learn to take care of it and observe it. It is carrying a little piece of green in your corner,” she said.

The school did not want them to buy a potted plant from the market. So, they came up with the concept of a terrarium, said a teacher.

An effective way to teach children about the environment around them is to engage them in activities involving nature, said a teacher.

Learning from and about the environment will have a long-term impact at a time when pollution is on the rise, said a teacher.

It is best to tap them young because children are naturally inclined towards nature and things around them.

“At a young age, they are sensitive to nature. They enjoy playing with water, soil, sand and mud. As they start getting older their attraction to gadgets keeps increasing,” said Vakharia.

“When we introduce this concept of a terrarium to them at an early age they will naturally have a more understanding of nature. When they grow up they won’t be indifferent to it. It is like taking care of the plants like their pets, take it with them where they go and not discard it,” she said.