Sweep while you leaf peep

Now is a great time to get outside and enjoy the fall weather. Here in NYC, after some blustery December-like days, the temperature has relented and popped back into the 60s. While you are outdoors at the park enjoying falling leaves (or at the beach enjoying a crisp walk), why not also hunt down some litter which shouldn’t have made it’s way to the ground? Picking up trash (and recycling) may not sound like a good time to you, but trust me, kids find it an exciting treasure hunt.   We took our young Real-World Super Heroes class out to Central Park for about a half-hour of clean-up time and we could barely corral them to leave when time was up. 

It is worth doing a little prep and following some simple procedures to make sure your outing is safe.  Before heading outside, we reviewed our safety rules: no picking up any glass, anything sharp, anything poop-like (ewww!). We all put on disposable gloves (a must!) and the adults carried bags for trash and recycling. We also asked our Heroes to guess how much trash and recycling they would collect during the clean-up; the consensus was 1 bag or “not much.” 

During this outing, the kids used some cool “trash grabbers” supplied by Central Park’s “Pitch In, Pick Up” program.  Our Heroes quickly became adept at using the grabbers (kind of like learning how to use chopsticks!).   Not surprisingly, we found a lot of trash to pick up, especially around the park benches and especially because it had been so windy for a few days.  We covered a large area inside the park and ended up filling 3 large garbage bags.  The kids were amazed at much fun cleaning up was and at how much trash they were able to find. Now I’m wondering if a getting my son his very own trash-grabber might convince him it is fun to clean up at home too! Worth a try, right?