My kids recycle, they turn off the water when they brush their teeth and turn off the light when they leave the room. They pick up trash when they see it on the way to the park. They know the three r's (reduce, reuse, recycle). I might think my kids are special but I really just think they're just doing what they must do, what every child must do. The world is different today and that's just how it is.
With this thought in mind, I approached the director of my preschool about instituting a recycling program. The amount of water bottles we toss at lunch... ug. The amount of construction paper we toss after completing projects... double ug. And guess what! She's onboard! She's asked me to compile a list of items the children can recycle but I'd also like to include a list of simple things children can do every day to help the environment.
What are your thoughts? What do your kids do to help? Please leave a comment... I have one week to compile the list. Thanks in advance!
6 comments:
We recycle or re-use everything. I'd suggest a box or bag for craft scraps, contruction paper, felt etc. Another thing we always did was save broken & small left over crayon pieces. Organize by color, re-melt in double boiler (teacher only for this part)and pour into fun shaped molds. I hope this helps!
A couple of things. My daughter switched from juice pouches and plastic water bottles to a reusable bottle in her lunch box.
At the store, we consider how much packaging is involved in an item before we buy. This helps me say no to overly-packaged snack packs.
My daughter is responsible for making sure we bring the reusable shopping bags into the store.
At our home we compost organic waste, including used napkins and paper towels. Our kids love doing this. It can be used to enrich garden soil. There is also rain collection that can be used for cleaning and watering plants.
You might ask parents to pack lunch items in reusable containers instead of plastic bags. And thermoses instead of juice boxes!
Good luck and thanks for helping kids help the earth. You are very inspiring!
use reusable water bottles instead of juice boxes, pouches or "throw-away" water bottles;
pack lunches in reusable containers--buy a large bag of pretzels and put in smaller reusable container instead of buying convenience packaging;
use cloth napkins at dinnertime;
save scrap papers, ribbons, bows, tubes, etc for art projects;
put leftovers in reusable containers instead of plastic baggies;
put a recycling bin by the computer printer to reuse/print on other side/recycle printouts;
oh, and i forgot! once we were at the walters gallery in b'more and they have a children's room where they do art projects. they don't use glue sticks, they use glue dots instead. glue sticks are a major waste of plastic. glue dots work like stickers--i'm probably preaching to the choir here! maybe you use more glue from the bottle, though...
Have their mommies or daddies walk to the bus stop instead of driving 20 ft and leaving their big SUV running for 20 minutes while they wait.
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