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Tue, 04/29/2008 - 12:00pm
Let’s celebrate Earth Day, April 22, and have fun taking care of our planet. Parents and kids can spend the month enjoying crafts and activities that will help teach the importance of taking care of Mother Earth. These fun projects may even inspire kids to nurture our resources and living creatures all year long.
Let’s celebrate Earth Day, April 22, and have fun taking care of our planet. Parents and kids can spend the month enjoying crafts and activities that will help teach the importance of taking care of Mother Earth. These fun projects may even inspire kids to nurture our resources and living creatures all year long.
Litter Bug
Teaching them how fun it is to reuse and recycle, all you need is an egg carton and the bits and pieces found in the bottom your craft bin, sewing kit or junk drawer. A tiny bug made of one eggcup and some buttons, string, and glue is just right for preschoolers. Bigger kids can stretch their imaginations and decorate the entire egg carton for a centipede-type bug.
Earth Diorama
Supplies:
• A shoebox or bigger box
• Construction paper (green, blue)
• Crayons and/or markers
• Cereal box
• Tape
• Thread
• Scissors
How to make it:
1) Decorate the box to represent the Earth. Use blue for the sky (top), green for the land (back), and blue for the sea (bottom). Reuse craft scraps to make the Earth as intricate as you
like (i.e. bits of pipe cleaners for seaweed, white buttons or cotton balls for clouds, glitter for bubbles, etc.)
2) Then, populate the Earth with endangered species, animals that need our help to survive. Recycle old coloring books and clip pictures of the animals, or simply draw and color them. Use the cardboard from the cereal box as backing and glue them to the land or sea, or attach flying animals with thread from the sky. Some examples of the Earth’s endangered or protected species include: gorillas, bald eagles, manatees, elephants, bison, gray wolves, grizzly bears, humpback whales, great white sharks, pandas, rattlesnakes, tigers, zebras, leopards, Western spotted owls, and many others that you can look up and read about.
Of course, what better way is there to enjoy the Earth than to go outside! Kids can refill birdfeeders. Clean up, and add winter scraps (fallen leaves, twigs and branches) to a compost heap. Scatter buckets around rainspouts to catch April showers; use them to water inside plants and to wash cars and bikes. On sunny days, hang wet laundry on an outside line. Ride bikes to a friend’s house instead of dropping the kids off with the car.
Celebrate Earth Day by raising some awareness and protecting our resources—parents can show their kids that a little can go a long way, and have fun doing it!
Gina Pangione is a freelance writer living in Carver with her husband, Jamie, and two muses, Sabrina, 8, and Mario, 3.
By Gina Pangione
Let’s celebrate Earth Day, April 22, and have fun taking care of our planet. Parents and kids can spend the month enjoying crafts and activities that will help teach the importance of taking care of Mother Earth. These fun projects may even inspire kids to nurture our resources and living creatures all year long.
Earth Day Crafts
By Gina PangioneLet’s celebrate Earth Day, April 22, and have fun taking care of our planet. Parents and kids can spend the month enjoying crafts and activities that will help teach the importance of taking care of Mother Earth. These fun projects may even inspire kids to nurture our resources and living creatures all year long.
Litter Bug
Teaching them how fun it is to reuse and recycle, all you need is an egg carton and the bits and pieces found in the bottom your craft bin, sewing kit or junk drawer. A tiny bug made of one eggcup and some buttons, string, and glue is just right for preschoolers. Bigger kids can stretch their imaginations and decorate the entire egg carton for a centipede-type bug.
Earth Diorama
Supplies:
• A shoebox or bigger box
• Construction paper (green, blue)
• Crayons and/or markers
• Cereal box
• Tape
• Thread
• Scissors
How to make it:
1) Decorate the box to represent the Earth. Use blue for the sky (top), green for the land (back), and blue for the sea (bottom). Reuse craft scraps to make the Earth as intricate as you
2) Then, populate the Earth with endangered species, animals that need our help to survive. Recycle old coloring books and clip pictures of the animals, or simply draw and color them. Use the cardboard from the cereal box as backing and glue them to the land or sea, or attach flying animals with thread from the sky. Some examples of the Earth’s endangered or protected species include: gorillas, bald eagles, manatees, elephants, bison, gray wolves, grizzly bears, humpback whales, great white sharks, pandas, rattlesnakes, tigers, zebras, leopards, Western spotted owls, and many others that you can look up and read about.
Of course, what better way is there to enjoy the Earth than to go outside! Kids can refill birdfeeders. Clean up, and add winter scraps (fallen leaves, twigs and branches) to a compost heap. Scatter buckets around rainspouts to catch April showers; use them to water inside plants and to wash cars and bikes. On sunny days, hang wet laundry on an outside line. Ride bikes to a friend’s house instead of dropping the kids off with the car.
Celebrate Earth Day by raising some awareness and protecting our resources—parents can show their kids that a little can go a long way, and have fun doing it!
Gina Pangione is a freelance writer living in Carver with her husband, Jamie, and two muses, Sabrina, 8, and Mario, 3.
