“Why do you have garbage Vanessa?” Quinn asked as Vanessa brought out lots of “garbage.”
“Not everything here is garbage, we can sort it into different bins so we can reuse, recycle and compost them. That helps the earth stay healthy,” Vanessa explained.
The toddlers gathered around and learned about the different ways we can sort our garbage. We looked at the symbol for recycling. “When we see this, it means we can put it in the recycle bin,” Debbie said. As we looked at a container we saw the symbol on the bottom. “It goes in cycling,” Kayden said.
The toddlers sorted recyclables into the recycle bin, old paper towels, tissues, and food into the green bin, and we cut up an old shirt to make cleaning rags. As we sorted our pile we ended up with only one item that was garbage- everything else we could recycle, compost or found a new use for. “Garby, garby,” Liliana said when she put the wrapper in the garbage can
As we were cleaning the classroom the following week we found a hair elastic when asked to throw it out Quinn looked at it and asked “Can we recycle it Vanessa?” “Unfortunately, we can’t recycle the broken elastic so it has to go into the garbage,” Vanessa replied.
On Earth Day The toddlers joined P2 in the park to help clean up litter. They wore gloves and talked about how important it is to use the garbage can. “litter can hurt the animals,” Lucy said as they cleaned up. “We put it in the garbage?” Callum asked. “Yes, then it won’t end up making the park dirty” “I use the garbage, me , me” Carina said.
While exploring the woods a few weeks later the toddlers noticed some litter in the forest. “Oh no,” said Ophelia, “there’s garbage in the forest. That no good.” “No garbage on the ground, garbage in the garbage can,” Austeja remembered. “I don’t like it garbage, yuck” Oscar commented.
The toddlers have since continued to ask if we can put items in the recycling or green bin before we throw something out. They have also used the rags we made to help clean up spills. These very small steps will have a big impact and have taught the toddlers that they can make a big difference.
