Reduce, Reuse, Recycle!!!

Hello Everyone, 

Scavenger hunt for trash

Today at Piers Park, my Harbor Explorers saw the Junior Sailors cleaning up the harbor, as their way to give back to the community. This lend to, of course a lot of questions. We sat our kids down to discuss the importance of what they were doing, to answer their questions as well as listen to their stories they had. 

I spy a plastic bag!

I wanted to see how much they already knew about our harbor, our ocean and why they believe it's important to protect it. So I simple asked them, "What do you think belongs and what does not belong in our ocean?". The kids quickly got excited that they could name a bunch of animals that live here. "Turtles, Dolphins, Fish, Jellyfish!", and the list went on. Once I asked them what doesn't belong here, I got the same reaction. "Plastic bags, cardboard, bottles, rope!", every kid shouted. All the kids liked pointed out that they would see these things when they would go out kayaking and sailing, which later on in the day they asked if they could pick up before they head back to the docks. 

Throughout this conversation, our kids would mention the stories/facts that they heard from documentaries. This consisted of how turtles think the plastic bags are jellyfish and choke on them and how whales and dolphins get entangled in fishing line. It's exciting to hear all the knowledge they already know and to see them so curious to learn even more. 

Say Cheese! 

The three R's was my next question for them. Seeing how smart they are, it shouldn't have been a surprise to me that they were able to answer it without even having to think about it. "REDUCE, REUSE, RECYCLE!", they all said. That definitely brought a smile to my face! Pointing out trash is one thing, knowing how to prevent the amount of trash in our ocean and to do it, is the next step. I can proudly say our kids at Piers Park can do just that! 

One last fact I wanted to leave them with before we went on our nature walk, was that because there is so much trash that end up in our oceans, there are floating islands just made up of trash and nothing else. These Islands our known as "THE GREAT PACIFIC GARBAGE PATCH". After that conversation, the kids were more than ready to clean up the harbor! 

http://education.nationalgeographic.com/encyclopedia/great-pacific-garbage-patch/

Til our next adventure, 

Nikita Cayabyab