theksmith
Explorer
yesterday i did a little presentation on Tread Lightly for Brady's kindergarten class. they have recently been learning about natural resources, recycling, and animal habitats - so the teacher thought this would be a good topic for them too.
i talked to them in the classroom first and made sure we where all on the same page about what "nature" or "the environment" meant and then tried to just teach them 2 basic concepts that i thought would illustrate the overriding principles of Tread Lightly:
"respect" is a core value at their school and they understand the word - so we also touched on how those concepts show respect for nature and respect for each other when we are sharing natural recreation areas.
i love how random 5 yo's can be. To my question "do any of your parents have 4x4's or Jeep's or trucks that can go in the dirt or the desert or woods?" i got back some "yes, my dad has a jeep!", and some "what's a jeep?", and even a "i've been on an airplane!"
then we hit the playground for a demonstration with little flags of how quickly the place would look like a dump if everyone littered with just one little candy wrapper or other piece of trash each day for a week. They did excellent and even started picking up random little pieces of trash they found on the playground before we were done!
when we looked back at what 25 kids times 5 pieces of trash on a playground came out to be, they did get the concept - i asked what would it be like on the playground then? and i got back "a dump!", "trash everywhere!!!", and i think i even heard "gross!"
i closed with giving them tread Lightly Bags with an overview brochure on Tread Lightly and an Offroad Passport card to take home to parents, and 2 stickers for each of them, as well as let them keep the little flags.
i also added that some of their parents might not want them to pick up trash because of germs and such, so maybe instead of doing it all the time they could organize a day with a trash bag and gloves to go out with parents and do a cleanup. the teacher had enough little plastic "lunch-lady" gloves to give one to each of them for their bags too (gotta remember gloves next time).
it was a good time and hopefully instilled the ideas of "don't trash-out stuff" and "share the trail" into them for when they grow up. thanks to Aimee for coming and helping me pass out things and take pictures! and thanks to Mrs. Marcus for having us!!
to learn more about Tread Lightly or get specific tips on how to best preserve and share our natural recreation areas, visit the website: TreadLightly.org
if you'd like more info on becoming a Tread Lightly Tainer or Master Trainer, or if you would like to get someone to come talk to your organization - PM me or check out this link: http://www.treadlightly.org/page.php/programs-treadtrainer/treadtrainer.html
i talked to them in the classroom first and made sure we where all on the same page about what "nature" or "the environment" meant and then tried to just teach them 2 basic concepts that i thought would illustrate the overriding principles of Tread Lightly:
- Don't trash nature - leave things nicer than you found them when you use nature for things like hiking, camping, biking, or 4-wheeling, pick up your trash, stay on trails, etc.
- Share nature - it doesn't belong to one person, so if you want to hike and someone else wants to drive a jeep, you have to share the resource, or take turns, etc.
"respect" is a core value at their school and they understand the word - so we also touched on how those concepts show respect for nature and respect for each other when we are sharing natural recreation areas.
i love how random 5 yo's can be. To my question "do any of your parents have 4x4's or Jeep's or trucks that can go in the dirt or the desert or woods?" i got back some "yes, my dad has a jeep!", and some "what's a jeep?", and even a "i've been on an airplane!"
then we hit the playground for a demonstration with little flags of how quickly the place would look like a dump if everyone littered with just one little candy wrapper or other piece of trash each day for a week. They did excellent and even started picking up random little pieces of trash they found on the playground before we were done!
when we looked back at what 25 kids times 5 pieces of trash on a playground came out to be, they did get the concept - i asked what would it be like on the playground then? and i got back "a dump!", "trash everywhere!!!", and i think i even heard "gross!"
i closed with giving them tread Lightly Bags with an overview brochure on Tread Lightly and an Offroad Passport card to take home to parents, and 2 stickers for each of them, as well as let them keep the little flags.
i also added that some of their parents might not want them to pick up trash because of germs and such, so maybe instead of doing it all the time they could organize a day with a trash bag and gloves to go out with parents and do a cleanup. the teacher had enough little plastic "lunch-lady" gloves to give one to each of them for their bags too (gotta remember gloves next time).
it was a good time and hopefully instilled the ideas of "don't trash-out stuff" and "share the trail" into them for when they grow up. thanks to Aimee for coming and helping me pass out things and take pictures! and thanks to Mrs. Marcus for having us!!
to learn more about Tread Lightly or get specific tips on how to best preserve and share our natural recreation areas, visit the website: TreadLightly.org
if you'd like more info on becoming a Tread Lightly Tainer or Master Trainer, or if you would like to get someone to come talk to your organization - PM me or check out this link: http://www.treadlightly.org/page.php/programs-treadtrainer/treadtrainer.html
