Preschool Fun: Earth Day, 2018

Earth Day!

With Aidan being in school full-time, and adjusting to life in a new country, we haven't had any of our school days at home.

But, today we were home, and it happened to be Earth Day!

So, here we go:

Activities

1. Bird Feeder

 For this activity, you'll need a toilet paper roll, some twine, seeds/nuts and peanut butter.
You'll need to thread the toilet paper roll onto the twine.
This is a great exercise for "reusing".  The toilet paper roll, obviously had a previous life, and the twine was from a tag on something I bought. :)  Also, I only had a tiny bit of peanut butter left - not really enough for anything else.

 First, you slather the toilet paper roll in the peanut butter.

And roll it in the seeds/nuts (we used sesame seeds, poppy seeds, sunflower seeds and some crushed up nuts that we had.)

 Then, you hang it up in your backyard - or in our case balcony. :)

Ta-da!!

2. Watering Plants

We have an herb garden on our balcony, so we made sure we watered them while we were out there!

3. Active Recycling

 Living in Slovenia, recycling isn't really an option - it's just what everyone does.  Which, of course is how it should be.  Our trash can is already divided into sections, and Aidan is really good about always double-checking where his trash is supposed to go.

After we used up the peanut butter, he rinsed out the glass jar, and set it to the side with the other glass things for recycling.

4. Reducing

Throughout the day, we talked about the different ways we could "reduce" the resources we have - like water or electricity.  For example, not letting the water run while we brush our teeth, not wasting the water while we wash our hands, and of course turning the lights off after we've left a room.  We also walked to the grocery store - a pretty common thing in our home honestly, but we talked about why it's important. :)

5. Poster!!

We used a big paper shopping bag for our "poster", and then collected all the things we did under the "Reduce", "Reuse" and "Recycle" tabs.

Food/Snacks

1. Earth Pancakes

For this breakfast I had Aidan help me make pancake batter, then I made up the pancakes, and arranged the grapes and blueberries on it to sort of make out the continents. And of course, a strawberry heart. :)

2. Earth Sandwich

I made Aidan's sandwich on a Kaiser roll, and then cut out some green bell pepper (which was the first thing he ate off the plate, I might add, woohoo!) to - again - make sort of continent shapes, and used cookie cutters to cut out apple slices to write out EARTH.

Arts/Crafts

1. Upper/lower case letter "E" coloring

Now that we've mastered the upper case letters, it's time to get started on the lower case ones!  This coloring page was great - all the water shapes that needed coloring had an upper case "E" on them, while the land ones had lower case "e"s on them.  After he was done, he wanted to cut it out - and who am I to stand between a boy and his fine-motor skill practice, lol?

2. Q-Tip Painting

 I found this coloring page on Pinterest.  All you need is some paint and Q-Tips, and you're set!  For the record, we bought our art supplies at IKEA, and I have to say, I was pleasantly surprised!

Such concentration...

3. Art Out Of Recycling

 We used that same shopping bag from earlier as a back, and since we didn't have any newspapers lying around, I used what I had - tons of IKEA instructions - for our paper.

 Aidan made a handprint, with a heart in the middle,

And then colored a blue and green border around it! :)

Books/Media

1. All The World by Liz Gaston Scanlon

I have not braved the Ljubljana public library, so the books I had on hand were just that - what I had on hand.  But this is a great book that shows different sides of our world, and that we're not all that different.  I'm particularly in love with the illustrations!

2. The Giving Tree by Shel Silversteen

While not strictly about the Earth (and of course, it can be taken to be meant in a more metaphorical way), it is about using up resources, until there are none left.

3. The Lorax by Dr. Seuss

Of course, this is an Earth Day classic, but it's always worth reiterating.  Honestly, I probably say "I speak for the trees" more than my husband finds amusing, but it does come to mind a lot. :)

4. The Magic School Bus Rides Again

(and the original too, of course!) Aidan and I both really enjoy this reboot, and of course as always, I learn something new from each episode!

And that's pretty much it!  That's how we spent our Earth Day this year, how about you?

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