Happy Earth Day!!!

In honor of Earth Day, we always do a recycling project to share fun ways to reuse/recycle would-be trash! I am always amazed by the creativity. 

Here's what kids walked in with this morning:

Awesome! So excited for our presentations later! During writing, we listened to two stories about how to help our Earth, discussed some problems that occur when we make poor choices regarding the environment, and wrote persuasive signs. 

Maybe one of these signs will persuade YOU into helping the environment! 

Don't leave your car on because the air might get bad and you might get sick. 

Stop dont leave trash out! The animals get hurt! (In her picture, you see a baby animal stuck in some plastic soda rings.) 

Don't throw trash on the street. Baby animals will eat it and die. 

Do not smoke! You will make the air dirty! (my side note: also your lungs!) 

Stop don't use the plastic bags and throw them in the ocean water. Turtles (are)  going to die. 

Do not throw trash on the ground it makes the world messy! 

Do not use plastic bags because the animals will eat them! 

Do not use plastic bags because it is going to hurt them. And (they) die. (An innocent sea turtle is trapped in a bag in her picture.) 

I think the baby animals in danger stuck with them the most... But we also discussed walking instead of using a car to reduce air pollution, turning off the faucet when brushing our teeth to prevent wasting water, various forms of recycling, using both sides of drawing paper, etc., etc. 

As kids worked on their posters, I called them back to make marbled Earth paintings. Here's a step by step... 

Materials: plate/tray, shaving cream, blue paint, green paint, white construction paper or cardstock cut into circles, popsicle sticks for swirling, ruler and flip chart paper (not pictured until last step) 

Let the students spray some shaving cream. 

Spread it around, flattening it out. 

Add drops of both paint colors and swirl... 

... until satisfied with the design! 

Next, press your circle down into the mixture, making sure all of it makes contact. Squish it down until the extra squirts out from the sides. 

Peel back the paper, revealing a big mess! 

Set it down, paint side up, on your flip chart paper (or similarly protected surface). Use the ruler to scrape off all the excess shaving cream. 

And you'll reveal a beautiful, marbled Earth painting! 

Happy Earth Day!!!