Happy Earth Day

I was totally bummed because our Earth Day plans fell through when I discovered the Expo we were going to was on Sunday, not actually Earth Day. So I had to come up with some alternate activities.

First we learned about the earth and undertook the #1 messiest craft we have ever done. We shaved crayons on a grater in blue and green. The shavings got everywhere and somehow got a little static cling.



We used an earth template, overlayed it with freezer paper, and sprinkled the shavings on the blue and green parts of the earth. I then covered the shavings with another layer of freezer paper and melted them with the iron on low. This part was relatively easy. We should have done some more shavings so it was a little thicker, but it turned out really pretty.




Then we ventured into our next craft: learning about picking up trash and making trash collection boxes. We just painted boxes with tempra, let them dry and then ventured outside to the park. We filled all 3 boxes relatively easy.

Ava was really into it. Violet not so much.



Our findings included: a quarter (it pays to recycle! :), a pair of baby shoes, baby toys and a garter. We then played at the park for a bit. The sun is so amazing. I love it!! We've gone to the park every day. Sand seems to be the only thing that entertains my kids for a long period of time.

Although I've never been particularly into earth day, I was horrified a few weeks ago when Ava was throwing trash out the car window. I'm sure whoever was behind us thought we were terrible parents... This spurred our lesson on the earth and trash pickup. It was also nice to read about the creation and tie that into our activities.