Two Hands Project

Just in case you haven't hear of it, you can find out what it's about by clicking HERE. In short, you pick up litter and help the environment. It only takes 2 hands and 10 minutes to make a difference. Let's be honest here, who really can not find 10 minutes out of a day? No one. 

 The beautiful Mandurah Foreshore, which is today clean thanks to 10 hands and 1 hour of the morning. 

So I've planned this day for the past week. We've been learning about the ocean and sea life this past week, so I linked it up for the kids. We talked about rubbish and where is should go, what's recyclable, what needs to be put in the garbage etc. Then we talked about what happens when it's been thrown on the ground and where it ends up... in our water ways and oceans. 

As Jaidan put it so bluntly at the park when a lady asked him why he was picking up litter. "People throw it on the ground, the rain and wind wash it into the drains and then it goes into the sea and kills the animals. People are mean". True kiddo, very true. 

We made it into a real fun learning activity too. You wouldn't think that kids would happily pick up litter would you? Mine did.We started at Mandurah Foreshore, picking up from the beach and the grass where it meets the sand, then we walked on the rocks and found all kinds of things in the rock crevices. Hats, thongs, a pair of shorts, a pillow and lots and lots of the usual plastic bottles, balloons, paper etc. With 10 hands and 1 hour we collected 5 buckets full. 

We talked about the things we found on the way to destination 2, Quarry Adventure Park in Meadow Springs. We hypothesised what we would find there and if it would be more or less than we found at the beach.

When we arrived, first we played, because you can't go to a park with 4 small kids and not let them play first :)

Then we got back to work. Elijah wasn't interested in helping so I let him just run around while the bigger boys did all the work. 4 buckets full in just 10 minutes. 

The kids were surprised that there was more at the park, as they thought there would be more at the beach. They also learnt that there was more plastic at the beach and more paper at the park. They thought this would probably be because plastic would float on the water, and paper would break up in the water. I think this is probably pretty accurate. They also realised that most of the rubbish we picked up was from take away shops like McDonalds. 

On the way home, Chase said "I think we should pick up the rubbish whenever we go to the park or the beach. We can just leave the buckets in the car so we won't forget them". I think this is a pretty good idea. 

Overall we spent 4 hours today picking up litter and learning about the environmental impact of littering. I am so proud of my boys for happily doing such a good thing. Jaidan said in the car on the way home "I think I did really well today mum, don't you?". I'm so glad he sees the good in his actions.