Additional Learning Resources for our Earth Day Learning Pack
Books About the Earth & Recycling
This is the Earth by Deirdre Pecchini Cummings
This is the Earth by Diane Zane Shore
The Lorax by Dr. Seuss
One World by Micheal Foreman
We Planted a Tree by Diane Muldrow
A Planet Full of Plastic: And How You Can Help by Neal Layton
What a Waste: Trash, Recycling and Protecting our Planet by Jess French
The Adventures of Plastic Bottle: A Story About Recycling by Alison Inches
It's Earth Day! by Mercer Mayer
Earth Day, Birthday! by Maureen Wright
The Earth Book by Todd Parr
How To Help the Earth by Tish Rabe
Miss Fox's Class Goes Green by Eileen Spinelli
Compost Stew: An A to Z Recipe for the Earth by Mary McKenna Siddals
Biscuit's Earth Day Celebration by Alyssa Satin Capucilli
I Am Earth: An Earth Day Book for Kids by James McDonald
Michael Recycle by Ellie Bethel
Art Projects:
Art Project #1: Recycled Art Sculptures
Let's look in our house today, and create our own unique sculptures with the items we no longer need! Perhaps you have paper, cardboard boxes from cereal, tin cans, egg cartons, etc. Use your favourite book, video game or tv series character or something you love to inspire you! This is will be very different for each one of you, and you can work as a team to design your sculpture.
Supplies:
Anything that you can recycle in your home
paint, scissors, glue, etc
you may also need a hot glue gun for this!
Steps:
Gather your items you have around your house, and using glue, or a hot glue gun, add one thing to another to create something unique. Paint it once you are done, and write or dicate the story behind your art. What does it mean to you? What was your inspiration behind it?
Enjoy These Educational Videos about Creating Art Using Recycled Products
Use these videos as inspiration for you and your kids in your Earth Day Recycled Art today! Please tag us on Instagram with your Earth Day Masterpieces!
I hope you have gained some inspiration today for your Recycled Art Projects, I cannot wait to see all your Earth Day Masterpieces!
Art Project #2: Earth Collage Art
Similar to our recycled sculptures art project, we can re-use materials for this craft too! Let's create our own Earth Collages using things like bubble wrap for making prints of the green earth and blue water, as well as old magazines with colors of green for the continents, and if you' d like, draw, paint, or cut out a heart shape to go in the middle of your earth! You can use a paper roll as a stamp, for a few different shapes, such as a circle, heart, or square! How many shapes can you make using a cardboard paper roll?
Supplies:
circle printable below
bubble wrap
paint, scissors, glue,
Steps:
Find your bubble wrap, and add blue paint onto it, then stamp it onto your paper below, to add the blue ocean. Then cut out green bits of paper, from news paper, magazines, or bits of scrap felt you may have, and glue onto it.
Add any details you would like, and once complete, cut out around the circle and glue onto a new piece of paper, or hang up to admire!
Can you spot where you live?
Art Project #3: Nature Walk Art
Let's go outside today to enjoy a little nature walk! Look for things you want to include in your Art Project, such as leaves, sticks, rocks or pinecones. Simply glue them to the page below, and add color or write/dictate about your walk and what you saw.
Supplies:
My Nature Walk Art Collage Page below
Findings from your nature walk
scissors and glue, paint
You may need a hot glue gun with the help of a parent
Steps:
Go outside on a nature walk, around the yard, down the street, to the park, however far you want to go. Look for things in nature that spark your curiosity, leaves, rocks, colors, patterns, textures, even bits of garbage like bottle caps, or wrappers.
*If you want to bring along a bag to clean up the trash along the way, that could be a bonus helping hand for Earth Day! Our kids love to do that, as they naturally spot the trash around. What better way to help the earth on Earth Day! Maybe you could even use some of it in your recycled Sculptures Art project.
Take home the things you found along your walk, and create an art collage with them!
Art Project #4: Painting 100 Rainbow Rocks
Read our special Art Tutorial on this Art Project here, or click the photo below:
Yummy Earth Day Cookies!
2 cups of white sugar
2 cups of soft, salted butter
2 eggs
2 TBSP of vanilla
4-6 cups of flour
4 tsp baking powder
blue and green food coloring
parchment paper
two baking sheets
bowl, wooden spoon, whisk and spatula
circle and heart cookie cutters
Steps:
Preheat your oven to 350F and line two baking sheets with parchment paper. Cream your butter and sugar together, with a wooden spoon, then add eggs and vanilla, and using your whisk, mix until smooth. Then add in your flour and baking powder, slowly, and whisk until too thick, then switch to your spatula and add rest of your flour. Mix until smooth and combined. You can chill the dough now, but this recipe does not need to be chilled!
Divide your dough into three, and color one batch blue, and the other batch green and keep the third plain. You can make your cookies four different ways:
#1: Roll small balls of each dough together to create a swirl of ocean and land. Place your Earth Day cookies on a baking sheet, and press down with the bottom of a glass to flatten.
#2: Swirl and knead your two colors of dough together, and then roll our on a floured surface and cut out earth day cookies with circle or heart shaped cookie cutters.
#3: Swirl and knead your cookie dough together, and then roll into a log, cover with plastic wrap and chill. when ready to bake, take out and slice into rounds and bake.
#4: Roll out the plain dough, cut out small circles, then with the remaining blue and green dough, add bits of blue and green dough ontop of the plain circle cookie to build your Earth's. Allow your creative side to shine with this version!
Bake for 6-8 minutes, and let cool on the sheet, then transfer to the cooling rack, and enjoy with a glass of milk and your favorite Earth Day Story Book!
We have some special blog posts coming very soon, that I think you will really enjoy this spring time! And if you are reading this, it means you have purchased right at the first day of our Launch! YAY! Thank you so much. Stay tuned for the updated Blog Post, YouTube Video and more, coming soon.
