The kindergarten sent our child home with a bag full of green glitter and told them to dump it in the back yard so the grinch doesn't mess up our holiday. So now we have huge pile of glitter in the entryway to our back yard (i.e. the main entrance we use to outside) š¤¦š¼āāļø
i feel like green would attract the grinch
also hasn't the Grinch's heart grown? guy loves Christmas now
That's what I'm saying... People just forget the end of the story where he becomes a lovely fellow.
šµ Bright green his body is, and his teeth are yellow! šµ
šµ But by the end, he's such a lovely fellow! šµ
Thatās why āyouāre a mean one mister grinchā is my least favorite Christmas song. Itās a slam sesh on this dude that completely misses the point of the story and the spirit of Christmas.
I mean the song takes place before he changes.
Sung by Tony the Tiger, his biggest hater
He relapsed
Under doctors orders, apparently having your hart grow three sizes is not a good thing.
Dude always loved Christmas!
Yes, but that actually became a problem. He loves Christmas so much heĀ now crashes Christmas parties.
he just loves carving the beast, is all š¤·š¾
It's terminal
In 1995 our teacher had us paint paper bags and then filled them with hay. We were to sprinkle that out front for the reindeer. Now that made sense. This is just stupid.
I think we got sent home with birdseed and were told reindeer ate that to fly like birds.
Mine was oatmeal with sprinkles in it
Yup, oats and sprinkles!
Yep, safe for the environment and just fed the birds. One year I think was cheerios lol
Iām glad yours had sprinkles. Our oats had glitter mixed inā¦ Not so great for the environment or the animals eating it :(
I had to refuse a (well-meaning) high school kid trying to give my 1-year-old a bag of "reindeer feed" with glitter in it while at an outdoor craft fair. Not only is sprinkling microplastics everywhere not on my to-do list, my kid isn't even old enough to know what the heck Christmas is, let alone meaningfully participate in something like that
Raccoons were feasting on Xmas Eve
Yes same!!! I feel so validated, no one else I know had reindeer food š
Sprinkles would be better than the glitter I've seen.
Ours was oats and glitter š
Same - we had bags of 'reindeer food' that was just birdseed. We were happy, the wildlife was happy, it was all good.
Ty. I was just thinking āwell thatās fucking stupidā. Like itās not even some cute little project involving creativity. Just a stupid fucking bag of green glitter
We covered a pinecone in peanut butter and then covered it in birdseed and was told to hang it on a tree outside
That seems more dangerous
For christmas we teach kids to endanger wildlife and damage the environment! Iād complain to the teacher wtf were they thinking
I'd complain to the principal! The microplastic issue alone is bananas.
Don't go straight to the principal. The teacher is likely well intentioned and trying to do their best to do something special for their class. A polite email about the situation is plenty.
I feel like there's a phrase I've heard before about peoples intentions
Paved with plastic glitter
Thatās technically not microplastics itās just plastic waste. Microplastics are usually invisible to the naked eye.
Regardless of definition, itās ridiculous for the school to do.
Microplastics are usually defined as any pieces under 5mm, which would include these
What? Since when? When microplastics were first becoming mainstream they were always defined as being microscopic hence the term microplastics. I guess they never shared the true definition or it changed at some point.
Thanks for the update!
Yeah most standard sequins count as microplastics, let alone glitter
Wait till you see the size of the waves in a microwave, bigger than I thought
Same with the "exfoliating beads" in soaps and scrubs. I stopped buying soaps with them as an additive once I learned that (from an episode of Adam Ruins Everything of all places). Those are almost always microplastics unless they're explicitly natural.
Man that bums me out. Fuck, we are killing everything we touch
They might not be microplastics now but will be within a year. Theyāre not getting any bigger.
Why would you go straight to the principal when a kind note to the teacher would be enough?
I dont think I'm going to make a formal complaint but I am considering writing a note to the teacher explaining the issues.
Definitely complain - thatās egregiously wasteful. Why introduce more microplastics into the environment for such a dumb reason- Iām actually disturbed by this š¤Æ
Seriously they could have dyed some freaking salt or sugar and it would just rinse away. Especially with the explicit purpose being to dump it outside.
Turn it into an easy color theory lesson & have them involved in the process - its a shame the teacher just went to forever plastic instead.
This is great. I like this idea
Even better it could have been a short, fun art period for the kids. Pour some salt on paper and then roll a green piece of chalk over it. We used to color salt with chalk this way.
This time of year you can buy green sugar in the baking aisle with the sprinkles.
Just a reminder that dumping salt on the ground also poisons the ground because most plants can't grow on salty land, and we're dumping so much salt on roads that it's ruining aquifers and lakes.
"Traditionally, Lake Michigan, for example, has been a very low-salt lake, with levels around one milligram ofĀ chlorideĀ per liter of water. Over the years, due to ourĀ increasedĀ salt use, that level has steadily but gradually climbed up to 15 milligrams per liter. This means that Lake Michigan is still a very low-salt lake compared to our oceans (which is closer to 35 gramsĀ of salt per liter),Ā but we are forcing change faster than nature and the environment can adapt."
Https://msutoday.msu.edu/news/2022/03/road-salt
Just don't dump anything on the ground?
When I was a kid in Michigan, we would sprinkle oats around on the ground for a reindeer snack.
I grew up in New Jersey and similarly, we would sprinkle bird seed for the reindeer snack.
Not to mention that OP will be tracking this shit into the house for generations to come.
Please make a formal complaint. This is a shit ton of plastic being thrown into the environment and people should really take littering more seriously
Nah, I think administration needs to be made aware that full bags of glitter are being distributed from their school directly into the local environment. A note won't do much for an entitled teacher, but alerting administration so that a policy can be implemented school-wide to prevent this from happening again. It's not about jeopardizing her job, it's about correcting the system in place for what's allowed at that school.
I agree, she should know better.
You will after a week of tracking it all over your house.
Glitter is the herpes of the craft world. It never goes away.
Eh if some dumbass teacher is causing my home to have glitter in it for the next year I'm making a formal complaint. This is actually so dumb it needs to be addressed so it doeant happen again.
Itās not for the next year. Itās forever.Ā
I was sent my friend a gift for Christmas. The artist thought it'd be cute to fill the box with little gold glitter stars. It's been ten years, we have a dog and a cat, and are engaged.... we are still finding those damn stars stuck on things.
And ever.
As much as I would support being petty and condescending, the teacher probably just wanted to do something fun for the kids on what little budget she had to work with. I would still write her a note, but maybe suggest doing ānatural confettiā next time (where the kids take leaves from the trees and little hole punchers to punch out what is basically natural confetti) because itās better for the environment, as well as still being fun for the kids.
Teachers work hard on limited budgets, so hereās hoping she just meant well. If it happens again though, definitely be condescending!
By complaint thatās what I meant, not a formal one just let the teacher know this is NOT okay.
Yeah just write a polite note to the teacher. They're just trying to do something cute and will probably be mortified enough that it caused an issue.
You can do a small burn test with a bit of it outdoors to test if its biodegradable or not... standard glitter melts and smells like burnt plastic because it is plastic, where cellulose glitter (the "environmentally friendly" type) will char like paper. Dont buy into the myth that all hexagonal glitter is biodegradable - it definitely is not.
Why not? Easy issue to fix, especially to have them not send this bs home.
That teacher is devious. Ā If you use your vacuum, youāll have residual grinch dust forever.Ā
They need an appropriate teacher gift.
I love his teacher but I feel these things are not thought out
I'd buy them a card from joksters or whatever their name is. Glitter bomb them when opening the card and the music doesn't stop playing for like 3 hours. If they tear it up they get glitter bombed yet another time. Got it for my boss a couple of years ago, fun times xD
Have your kid glitter-decorate a nice mug for the teacher as a holiday gift. They can even use some of the leftover grinch repellant! "Forget" to seal it with anything. :)
My daughter's favorite teacher gave out little seed packets with a cute poem about forget me nots. Unfortunately these seeds were morning glory instead and we most certainly did not forget them until we sold that house. Morning glory is totally invasive and had to get ripped out every year so it wouldn't suffocate the rest of the garden. I'm sure the new owners have been getting a workout.
When I was in 4th grade, the principal came through every classroom and dumped glitter on our heads as a good luck charm for the upcoming state exams. It took my mom weeks to fully wash it out of my hair because some of it stuck to my scalp.
š± how did anyone think that was a good idea!
Some people don't think
That principal got very lucky. Getting any glitter in your eyes can cause serious damage, including losing that eye.
Ha! You just brought up a vague memory I have of my primary one teacher sprinkling glitter on our heads as we walked into the classroom one year around Christmas. Iāll have to ask my mom if she remembers it lmao
The parents should return energy and go in on a beautifully wrapped glitter bomb for that teacher. We should all know in 2025 not to send glitter home with little kids and tell them to dump it ANYWHERE.
As someone who used to be a janitor in schools, including elementary school, this would punish the janitor more than anyone else. The teacher would have to do a cursory clean but the worst and most annoying aspects would fall to someone who had nothing to do with it. I'd just complain to the principal.
As a school custodian Iām glad to see anyone consider us lmao
Tell the teacher to wait till they get home to open it. They brought glitter into others houses might as well return the favor
right! I'm not that mean, but I did momentarily consider it
The teacher was that mean. I'd do it lmao
Same. Annoying for parents tracking in the glitter everytime they go in/out (obviously) but also terrible for the planet, wtf?? Crazy in 2025
Itās not mean. Iām a teacher. She should know better. I promise if you make her clean up glitter, she will never do it again. Natural consequences. I hope itās her first yearā¦
Just attended a Cookies with Santa event today with my preschooler. On the way out, one of the parents at the volunteer table handed my son a little baggie of something. I thought it was candy for him. Once we got by the car, I asked for it to see what it was and it's "reindeer food", which essentially looks like a mixture of dried oats and confetti. I'm so glad I grabbed that from him before it ended up dumped all over the car.
Cute idea, but one that's best left to individual households to decide if the risk of the mess is worth the tradition.
We were at an event where the kids were given a jar of glitter as āfairy dustā in a gift bag of other goodies and apparently told to sprinkle a pinch on their heads and make a wish. My kid upended the entire bottle over her headā¦while in her car seat.
The way I would just instantly combust
Kind of my fault for not removing it from the goodie bag, but I hadnāt heard the ādirectionsā the kids were given!
Whenever i think of glitter near heads, i think of that one reddit/imgur? post where the girl got a bit of glitter in her eye and eventually lost the eyeball. Instilled the fear of glitter in me hard
Mildly infuriating? We need to stop all glitter, it never goes away.
I once got a card from my very glitter-loving aunt so I preceded to open it like it was a nuclear weapon. Got it open and sure enough it was full of glitter. I was so glad I opened it so slowly and didnāt spill the glitter.
Then she hit the card from underneath and glitter went everywhere. Iām pretty sure my face communicated my thoughts. My mother spent weeks bitching about it every time she vacuumed.
Its like some people go out of their way to be unlikeable.
Her hitting the card from underneath could have blown glitter into your eyes and youād have the joy of your corneas getting shredded and the ER trying to get glitter out of your eyes. Festive!
Itās all fun and games until someone loses an eye ā then itās the holidays!!
What a bitch
It's times like this I'm glad me and my mom both hate anything glitter.
Glitter is the Herpes of the crafting world.
Coal in that teacher's stocking
Glitter covered coal.
š¤£š¤£
Wow, a kindergarten teacher tells kids to dump microplastics into the dirt? Raising great humans in 2025
This feels like something the teacher saw on Facebook and didn't read the comments to see why it was a terrible idea. I'm anti-glitter as a rule, but the worst part is telling the kids to just dump it, and not giving you a heads up somehow.
Since you like her and this doesn't sound like you're having regular issues, I'm sure she'd appreciate you coming to her directly over involving the admin.
Ugh what a horrible thing to send kids home with. This is just harmful to the wildlife and environment not to mention a mess that'll take ages to go away. You should talk to the teacher about why this was not a good idea. They probably think this was cute and harmless but it's not.
We had a teacher send bags of reindeer food that had glitter in it along with oats and seeds. When I explained to the teacher that telling kids to dump that outside was actually harmful to the environment and the animals that would seek to eat the oats and seeds they were shocked. They had no clue it wasn't safe. Thankfully there was time for her to correct her error and get kids to bring back those baggies before Christmas break. Sometimes teachers just don't think things through
this is the way. I'm going to write a very considerate note explaining that it was a cute idea poor execution with reasons why. I might try to think of alternative wildlife friendly ideas she can use for the future
Suggest a mix of bird seeds and plain oats instead. It's wildlife safe and not hazardous as long as they don't add any glitter or other crap
They sell biodegradable glitter for use outside, also this is something that parents/guardians should be notified of in advance so they can make a plan or maybe even give the item directly to the adult who picks them up and not to the child.
I made a post like this the other day! I emailed and the teachers response was super positive. They send my kid home with an oats and glitter mix for the reindeer with the same instructions, to dump it on the lawn.
Im curious how they responded. It just seem SO OBVIOUS that scattering oats and seeds with glitter mixed in will attract and harm animals.Ā
"I TOTALLY get that!!Ā Fair point daughters name :)Ā Thank you so much and yes- absolutely!Ā For the future, we will definitely make sure that we add edible, environmentally friendly ingredients for lack of a better term :)Ā Ā Great suggestion and it totally makes sense, thanks for bringing itĀ to my attention and I'll let our big kids know too.Ā Ā Hope your holiday preparations are going well too-it's always a busy time of the year, but a happy time too!Ā Thanks again and take care!"
That was her response email to my "unsolicited advice" email to her. The big kids she's referring to are the high schoolers. The teacher is a high school teacher, she runs an early education class for preschoolers where the high schoolers teach the littles and the actual teacher oversees them all.
That was written by a high school teacher?
You possibly (probably?) single-handedly saved the lives of a handful of innocent critters by talking to her about it, I really appreciate you!
Isn't there biodegradable glitter? And if thats also not good please do tell /gen
There's been some studies that suggests even biodegradable glitter can have harmful effects on waterways. A lot of them are cellulose coated with aluminum to make it shiny. Which aluminum in micro amounts might not harm humans but it can build up and be toxic for tiny creatures like birds, fish, chipmunks and such. Some studies say it's safe, others suggest it's not. Best to avoid teaching animals glitter is food in either circumstance. Because if it's safe biodegradable stuff at your house but Karen down the road uses the plastic stuff that can be an issue too.
biodegradable just means it'll break down at some point, but doesn't necessarily mean it's safe for animals
I can think of a lot of uses for glitter that arenāt this inappropriate
Glitter should be illegal. Iād tear the school a new hole.
This is also obviously plastic glitter... not biodegradable glitter that would be acceptable for dumping outside...
whatever happened to just throwing out some oats in the driveway as "reindeer food", why must we teach children to litter just bc some teacher finds it cute
Weād always pop a carrot out - mince pie for Santa, glass of milk and some carrots for the reindeers.
I canāt believe the teacher has sent home a plastic bag of plastic glitter.. itās mad. A drawing or something to put in the window would have made more sense.
That seem really irresponsible on the teachers end. "Hey here's a bag of microplastic! Go litter!"
Yeah, a play group I take the kid to had āreindeer foodā as a craft for the kids last year - it was oats and glitter that we were supposed to put on the lawn.
So basically they wanted us to give all the local chickadees a microplastic infestation.
I am a teacher and let me tell you no teacher in their right mind is encouraging glitter. Thereās gotta be something wrong with that teacher. š¤£
She hates the kids in her class & their parents even more, apparently.
I saw the picture picture was like ah, OP has small children in school. š
Should have give them seed balls/seed mix for bees and butterflies
This is so bad for the environment too. Do you have a shop vac you can use? I would definitely send in a complaint to the school
Don't ruin a shop vac with glitter.
Strips of duct tape. Rip, lay on glitter, pick up and trash. Repeat until mildly satisfied.
great idea! I've been wondering how to clean it up and I knew vacuum wasnt the bed idea
wth is this eco terrorism
That is so fucking dumb
Not good for the environment at all.
āLetās send a tiny child home with glitter (or the herpes of the art world) because that totally wonāt go wrong and get everywhereā¦ā
It seems your kid's teacher doesn't give a shit about the environment.
This is encouraging littering. Iād be pissed and concerned about the intellect of this teacher.
What is it with American kindergarten teachers and microplastic pollution? Second post like this I've seen this week.
My kid came home with āreindeer food.ā It was oats with glitter. That went right in the trash when he went to bed.
Get a bunch of "Grinch dust" and make a glitter bomb and give it to the kindergarten teacher.
glitter should be illegal. hard stop, straight to jail.
Glitter is never the answer. For anything. Ever.
What is going on with this obsession with the Grinch this year? I feel like I'm getting pelted with marketing for it
Can elementary schools stop giving glitter to kids š I saw a bag of reindeer food that had glitter in it too and kids were told to dumb that in the grass. I wonder how many places are tell kids to dumb microplastics on the grass every Christmas cause there seems to be a lot in the comments
Iād definitely say something to the teacher and also try to vacuum up as much as I can.
Someone on a parenting podcast I used to listen to called glitter the herpes of craft supplies. I still think itās so funny and true.
They totally could have used green cookie sprinkles instead!
My god on top of that it had to be THAT much????? Like if they truly wanted to do that can they send a pinch of glitter in like a tiny container? A ziplock full of it is insane
Gift it back to the teacher in a card.
Have your kid bring some glitter to school to dump in the classroom too, just in case the grinch shows up there.
Great, let's release micro plastics into the environmentĀ
Ah, I see we're adding plastics directly into our environment now. No middle man landfills needed anymore, I suppose. That's awful.
This seems like grinch summoning glitter
Vacuum. Multiple times. Quickly, before the wind picks up!
What about the kids who live in condos?! š¬š¬š¬ wholly shit if you dumped that on the carpet outside your unit door the building would have a fit!!
At first I thought the chive guy just said āfuck itā today.
Thats when you tell the kids to glitter teh teachers stuff to also help them protect themselves from the grinch
My kindergarten teacher was my neighbor and also my dad's best friend. She sent us home with red glitter and hay as "rainndeer food". He told me to spread it in her yard cause maybe she wanted to see the raindeer instead. I laugh everytime I think of it.
My kidās TK teacher gave the kids a little baggie of glitter at the meet & greet the day before school with instructions to sprinkle it under their damn pillow so they wouldnāt be nervous for school the next day. What the actual fuck.
There were so many other ways to do this. Cute idea, I love that it keeps children's imagination alive, but horrible execution. At the very least it could have been biodegradable glitter
Flash mob the teacher's house with all the other parents of the kids in that class in Grinch costumes and unleash a little mayhem.
Remember to leave your phones at home, and to look up "green toilet paper."
Noooo itās supposed to be red& green Christmas rice crispies and cake sprinkles. Teacher messed up big time.
What a lovely christmas gift! Dumping polluting particles in nature!
You mean plastic. The school has told children to dump micro plastics into nature.
Oh this would make me so angry, glitter is a no in this house, especially outside where it just gets eaten by critters!
Whatās wrong with todayās chives?
Glitter is the herpes of the crafting world.
Iām not one to yell about much but that would piss me the fuck off. The teacher would definitely hear how stupid an idea that wasā¦
If you use a roll of cheap packing tape you can clean this up.
An activity made by someone without kids
Pack some glitter in a bag and tell your kid to put some at the entrance of their classroom
I'd talk to that idiot teacher. Who knows what other stupid shit she's teaching
Ah the joys of parenthood! It actually looks like the grinch sneezed there! :P
You should definitely dump some glitter at the school
Thats messed up. You shouldn't be arming the little terrorists
That is my nightmare!!
At least there wonāt be any Grinches coming to your house and stealing your valuables. They probably will, however, be robbing whoever thought that putting copious amounts of glitter out in the open was a good idea.
Lint roller or tape is the best way to get rid of this, but every time you look at this section of brick youāll see a speck of it.Ā
Use a vacuum or shopvac with a sock on the end to catch it throw away however you like. And that way it's not inside your vacuum for ages.
You KNOW at least one parent had that bag accidentally ripped open in the car and is (understandably) seething right now.
This is such a stupid low-effort āactivityā on the teachers partā¦.maybe they read the book in class that day, cool. Why do they need to dump plastic waste into the earth when they get home?
Not to mentionā¦the grinch is reformed by the end of the book lol, no repelling necessary!!!
Itās like theyāre trying to think of how to trash the planet as fast as possible
Hey kids, let's throw trash on the ground.
Why is glitter still a thing?
This is wildly irresponsible of them. Glitter in eyes can cause serious injuries. Itās also terrible for wildlife and the environment. Please, channel any Karen energy you have and send them some articles so they never ever do this again. Then remind them that itās better they get this than a lawsuit because a kid lost their eye.
Edited to add: https://www.aao.org/eye-health/tips-prevention/holiday-glitter-champagne-eye-injury
If youāre squeamish donāt google āglitter eye injury.ā But maybe send some images to the daycare.
From the picture it looks like this glitter is a hexagonal. I'd check with the teacher and see if this is biodegradable plant l-based cellulose glitter, which is most often sold in a hexagonal shape.
Here's an example of some for sale, but there are a bunch of companies that make them for parades and carnivals.
https://www.madmicas.com/products/biodegreenable-biodegradable-glitter?_pos=5&_sid=7ed1c768a&_ss=r
Wow, that's... really fucking stupid. Teacher has zero brain cells or what?Ā
As a Kindergarten teacherāI donāt even use glitter in my classroom unless itās super controlled..by meā¦oof! Awful. Likely wanted to have something magical and cute without thinking it through.
My mom would've whooped my ass first then talk to the teacher if I did that as a kid.
I feel bad for the kids who have very strict parents who tend to blame their children for literally anything that goes wrong. It's not the kid's fault, it was the crazy teacher.
Thatās horrible for the environment. I hate that teacherĀ
F that teacher
Oh nooooo, we donāt give the herpes of crafting to the Earth! It never goes away!
the teacher couldāve given them all a tiny bag of bird pellets and called it āreindeer kibbleā and instructed them to sprinkle it on their front lawn so the reindeer could have a snack break when they land on xmas eve. this is just stupid and probably the quickest thing they thought of.
thatās so bad for the environment ._.
So your school told your kids to dump microplastics into the ecosystem?
Isn't that super bad for the birds?
Glitter is the herpes of the arts and crafts world. Once you have glitter in your home, you have glitter forever. It never fully goes away no matter how diligently you try to clean it.
Iām reading this and I canāt help but think āwhat kind of adult would even think this is remotely okay?ā
The kindergarten has to be fucking with the parents right? Who sends kids home with glitter
My little brain thought the chopped chives guy spilled today's effort on the ground!
On the bright side the Grinch won't come to your house
Using this actually attracts the grinch because he sees it as overconsumption and must deglitter your house.