Recycle Art for Earth Day

Earth Day is approaching on April 22nd.  One of the easiest things people can do is recycle.  Here in California they make it easy by providing a large recycle bin with our trash bins.  I don't even have to sort really.  The waste company tells us what can be recycled, I collect it in the house and throw it all in the recycle bin later: bottles, cardboard, cans, paper, some plastic, etc.  Basically whatever I don't save for projects, gets tossed in the recycling bin. Easy and convenient.

Here on Messy Kids we've done numerous recycle projects including sensory bottles, magazine paper chains, and eggshell sculptures on old cardboard.  Today I'm sharing a Earth Day Tree Scenes.  For this project you will need:

• Tissue paper or scrap pieces of construction paper* (green or fall colors)
• Easter Grass (or shredded paper**)
• Magazines
• Empty toilet rolls

I normally stay away from teacher/parent directed projects, but they do have their place.  This project is in between teacher/parent directed and child led as the kids should follow some directions: create a tree, place grass beneath the tree, place an item under (or next) to the tree, and add an animal.  It's great if you are working on directions (on, under, next, beside, etc) at home or in your classroom.  The child led portion comes from how they create their tree and the magazine items they choose to add to their picture.  You can see the difference in the photos.

   

    Here are some basic directions for your Earth Day scene:

• Have your child glue the TP roll vertically (in the center) onto paper, an old cereal box, or other cardboard.    
• Glue the Easter grass or shredded paper under the tree.  
• Tear tissue paper or scrap paper and glue pieces as the leaves of the tree.  You can say on top of the tree if you are using this as direction art.  
• Have children cut pictures from magazines.  They can glue a pictures under the tree and/or next to the tree.    

*When kids cut paper, there are always scraps.  These can be useful for collages and other recycle projects, such as this.  Waste not, want not.

**Own a paper shredder?  Create grass by running scrap green paper through the shredder.  

How will you be celebrating Earth Day this year?  Will there be art involved?  Leave a comment and tell me more!