Hillary, a.k.a The Lesson Planning Mommy, is one of our fabulous Great Lakes Bay Moms Members. Hillary has a bachelor’s degree in Early Childhood Education pre-school through third grade and a Master degree in Elementary Education grades K-8 with a reading endorsement K-12 grade. She loves creating meaningful, mind provoking activities and lessons for kids.
Let’s get our kids thinking green this week with some Earth Day songs, Arbor Day facts, and tons of up-cycling projects. Now is
the time to think, “What can my family do to help our Earth?”
In the classroom, I loved teaching about Earth Day and Arbor Day. My lessons always involved planting trees from the Arbor Day Foundation, picking up trash around the school and playground, and talking about recycling with my students. It was neat to see their little minds thinking about how they could do their part.
At home, I like to make up-cycled projects with my own children. It’s fun for all of us to see what kinds of creative ideas we can come up with from our own trash!
What We’re Reading:
Recycle! – A Handbook for Kids
By: Gail Gibbons
Why Should I Recycle?
Why Should I Recycle?
By: Jen Green
Song:
I’m An Earth Day Helper, by Jean Warren (sung to the tune of Yankee Doodle) I’m an Earth Day Helper And I want to say. We can care for the earth Each and every day. First we clean up litter, And recycle, too! Then we keep the air clean And oceans nice and blue. Once There Was A Little Bug, by Jean Warren (sung to the tune of Eensy, Weensy Spider) Once there was a Litter Bug Who went from town to town, Throwing out garbage, That landed on the ground. The garbage grew so high That when he turned around, The Litter Bug got buried And he was never found!Mom-Me Outing:
Help to make our Earth a little cleaner!
Grab a few garbage bags, some plastic gloves, and a little motivation! Then take your kids on a hunt for trash. Clean up your neighborhood, parks, or even local schools. This is a great way to teach your kids that no matter how small they are, they can still make a big difference.
Activities:
Litter Bug
Let the kiddos get creative by making their very own “Litter Bug” out of your trash, and other miscellaneous materials they find around the house. This activity can also work as a great conversation starter about recycling and up-cycling their trash to create something new!
What You Need:
- Your (clean) garbage
- Leftover art materials
- Glue
- Scissors
- Your Imagination!
Up-Cycling Broken Crayons
http://countingcoconuts.blogspot.com/2009/10/recycled-crayons.html
Do you have lots of broken crayons lying around your house? I sure do! Remember, I have that teacher/hoarder brain that tells me that I can NEVER throw away any kind of material. But holding onto these broken bits of crayons have definitely been worth it. My six year old and I love making big crayon cakes from these bits, and because they are so big (and not nearly as fragile), they are great for little hands still developing dexterity in their little fingers. This is a great color mixing activity too!
Directions:
- Painstakingly remove the paper from each crayon (this is best done in front of the television with a glass of wine)
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees
- Break up the crayons and group them into your preferred color combinations in a muffin tin
- Turn off the oven and place the tin on the middle rack
- After about 10 minutes, carefully remove the muffin tin from the oven – try not to jostle it too much or the colors will run together and make an ugly blob (unless that’s what you’re going for, of course!)
- Let them cool completely (you can put them in the freezer to speed up the cooling process)
Helpful Tips:
- DO NOT use washable crayons – they’ll leave a layer of clear wax along the top of the cake, resulting in useless coloring.
- DO NOT use jumbo crayons. These bad boys refuse to melt completely through, regardless of how long they are left them in the oven.
- If you decide to use the freezer, DO NOT plop them out of the tin onto a counter top or other hard surface (use a towel). Breakage will occur.