“Living on an island, flying in the sky and travelling in time and space”
Just in case you don’t recognise it, that’s a line from the VERY catchy Picker Pals song.
It describes the magical floating island of Pickerupolis, where the Picker Pals live as they seek out litter from all over the galaxy and it forms a key part of our story-based approach to learning.
Even magical floating islands aren’t immune from the passage of time though and the Picker Pals are big advocates of working in harmony with the seasons. After all, who wants to eat food that has millions of intergalactic space miles on it???
Joking aside, the Picker Pals understand that outdoor activity naturally drops during the dark, colder months, so this year we operated our most-comprehensive programme of classroom-based activities yet.
From Welcome Zooms to Live Meet-Ups & Art Competitions, over 1100 separate online engagements have taken place so far, as we continue to provide enthusiastic students with a space to pursue their environmental interests and crucially to recognise their place within a much larger community of eco-aware young people all over Ireland.
The online calls are always fun, as the children’s energy shines through the screen and we take the opportunity to teach them about topics that are meaningful to us and hear about what matters to them.
All of teaching resources we use can be downloaded for free from our website www.pickerpalsworld.org.
Now that winter is thankfully behind us and spring has come, we have noticed a surge in litter-picking activity all over the country, with hundreds of fantastic photos being sent to us of children pulling on their high-vis jackets as they lead their families on a mission to clean up their localities.
This is a really exciting time of year for us and you can stay up to date with all the great work that’s happening on our social media channels where we can be found using #pickerpals.
As always, we are grateful for the ongoing support we receive from The Department of the Environment, Climate & Communications, Local Authorities, BMW Ireland, Sky & E-Shop World……We couldn’t run the programme without them!
Finally….. If we’ve piqued your interest and you want to hear a song so catchy that it will stay in your head all day, you should check out the Picker Pals SONG on Youtube!
