Earth Day Scavenger Hunt

I like to get the kids in the neighborhood together for a walk where we pick up and sort the neighborhood trash as we walk throught the neighborhood. The items on the Scavenger hunt list are meant to teach the kids what things are recycleable, so they are cans, bottles, foil, paper, plastic bags. and can be anything else you can recycle on the list. As we walk, we mark off what each person finds and collect it to be recycled later. You can  make a group list and have the kids work together finding out what kind of trash is the most common in your area. Kids can make predictions as to why it is so common and what could be done to stop this problem. In our case it is talking to the neighborhood grocery store and having them put up more garbage can/recycle bins for people to throw out their trash instead of throwing it on the ground.  At the end of the hunt, sort through the collection and see if there is anything you can reuse for an art project, then recycle the rest. This game/project is a great way to let kids feel like they made a direct impace on the earth.