Our First Trash Clean-up Activity

We had a great time picking up trash a Griffith park this week. We cleaned, watched squirrels, and explored nature for about 40 minutes. The park seemed  pretty clean and I was a little concerned that there wouldn't be enough trash for us to pick up, but  once we got started I realized how much there really was.

Here's a picture of our fabulous, hard-working girls 

Each child had their own plastic grocery bag to dump trash into. That worked okay, but there was a bit of a breeze and the bags were hard for the kiddos to handle at times. I think that next time it might be better to try little pails or something like that-- then they wouldn't have to worry about trying to hold their bag open while it blows in the breeze. 

Taking a break to explore a mysterious hole-- "what could live in there? Hey! There's trash in this little animal's home!!"  Just for the record it wasn't really an animal home... just a shallow hole. :)

I was glad that I thought to bring hand wipes at the last minute. Hands got a little dirty even through the little "t-shirt fabric" gloves I made for my girls. Too much mud from the rain the day before.

Oh yeah! One other thing-- the playground was a bit of a distraction at the beginning. Things got easier for the kids once we moved away from it, but next time I might avoid playgrounds completely.

It was a big success overall. Lot's of opportunities for teaching, and at little bit of exercise as an added bonus.