Posts tagged ‘Recycling’
Chipper Crafts: Natural October Owls!
Owls make a great subject for teachers or parents to teach their child about wisdom and camouflage! Did you know that an Owls feathers are colored and designed to help them blend in with their surroundings? These amazing, ancient animals also have special flight feathers adapted for silent flight.They have developed special feather adaptations that enable them to minimize the sound made when flapping their wings. For instance, the leading edges of their primary feathers have a stiff fringes that reduces noise while the trailing edge of their primaries have soft fringes that helps to reduce turbulence. Downy feathers cover the surfaces of the wing to further reduce sound. Learn more awesome owl facts here.
GREAT HORNED OWL MADE WITH REAL FEATHERS
What you will need: brown feathers, yellow construction paper, black magic marker, inside of a sunflower seed,
glue, and brown construction paper or a paper plate.
How to make:
1. Draw an egg shape for the owl on to brown construction paper or paper plate and cut it out. The wider end of the egg shape is the owl’s head.
2. Glue two feathers on for the wings. Then glue on long feathers for the body.
3. Glue the shaft end of the feathers to the neck area so that the tips of the feathers form the owl’s tail feathers (Feathery part).
4. Cut the tips off of some of your feathers and glue them in a circular pattern onto the face area to make the facial disk.
5. Cut yellow circles from the construction paper and use a magic marker to color in the pupils. Glue on a sunflower seed for the beak
PINE CONE OWL
What you will need: Pinecones (If possible use pinecones that are twisted at the bottom so that the bottom of the pinecone is showing from one side.), Small brown feathers, yellow construction paper, inside of a sunflower seed, Chenille stems (optional), wiggly eyes, and glue.
How to make a Pine Cone Owl:
This is a very simple, quick and inexpensive craft for young children. Plus it can be a ton of fun to explore outside and search for Pine Cones! Older children may want to add legs to their owl using Chenille stems or pipe cleaners.
1. Glue two small feathers to the bottom of the pine cone to look like the tuffs of the great horned owl.
2. Glue more small feathers to the face area in a circular pattern starting with the shaft of the feather in the center of the face to make the facial disk.
3. Cut yellow eyes from the construction paper and glue to the facial disk. Use a magic marker to color in the pupils. Glue them to the face. Glue on a sunflower seed, point down, for the beak.
4. Bend Chenille stems to make the owl’s legs, and glue them between the scales of the pinecone.
These little owls look great in pinecone wreaths and Christmas trees.
PAPER BAG OWL
Recycling has never been so cute! This craft makes a great party favor for a birthday or Halloween party!
What you will need:Brown paper lunch bag, brown construction paper, black marker, yellow card stock or construction paper, glue, and newspaper ripped in quarters.
How to make a paper lunch bag owl:
1. Stuff a paper lunch bag with wrinkled up pieces of newspaper about half full. Pull the sides of the paper bag out from the top so that you can make a flat surface at the top of the bag.
2. Fold down the sides from the middle top of the bag and glue them down. Fold the down the point to the front of the bag making the top of the owls head. Pull up on the sides to make the horns and open them slightly.
3. Draw wings on brown paper and eyes and a beak onto yellow paper using a black Sharpie, and cut them out. Glue them to the bag.
Want to make more Outrageous Owl Crafts? Find some here.
Check out Chipper’s other Owl crafts and Owl recipe from this week!
Chipper Recycle Crafts: From Old CD to Rainbow Fish!
With the 21st century mp3 player revolution, most of us have plenty of old CD’s lying around the house, either outdated or scratched and eroded. Keep these toxic disc’s out of our landfills by recycling them. They are perfect for making crafts! One idea is to stick your old J-Lo CD in the microwave for about 5 seconds. There will be some crackling but it’s quite safe. DO NOT put it in longer than a few second though! When you take it out, the silver film will have spider webbed out. Get some string and hang them up in a window for a gorgeous stain glass-like ornament! You can even use paint of markers to color them. Or, make this cute and easy fish craft from a used CD! If your kids like the Rainbow Fish book, they’ll love this simple craft!
Materials needed:
1 CD
Construction Paper
Craft glue or hot glue
Sequins
Instructions:
Cut the fin shapes out of construction paper. Glue the fins to the back of the CD (except for the front fin) so you wouldn’t see the cut edge. Cut the eyes out of construction paper, or you could use a purchased googly eye instead. Place dots of craft glue around the CD and place sequins onto the glue. Now you have your very own Rainbow Fish! Read them this classic story or check out this video of it before or after making this craft to teach them all about sharing and caring for one another. Chipper’s Helping Hands book is another great resource for teaching your little one’s about helping out where they can and sharing with their family and peers. Get Chipper and creative with some crafts today!
Chipper Recycle Crafts: What can you do with a Cereal Box?
If your kids love cereal (who doesn’t?), you must recycle cereal boxes left and right! Next time
you finish the next box of Cheerios, save the box instead. There are tons of fun crafts and games you can do with just some cardboard boxes! One person’s trash is another person’s pleasure : )
Here are a few great craft ideas you can do with you cereal boxes from Chipper! Please share some of your ideas with us! Here’s one great craft/gift idea designed by real artists: Make your own Cereal Box Picture Frame!
Making Cereal Box Masks
Masks are a lot of fun to make, but they are especially fun to make for Halloween, masquerades, parties, or just playing dress up. Cut a piece of wrapping paper to fit around the box and glue it securely in place. Make the features by coloring them on with wax crayons, or pasting on bits of colored paper. Here are some suggestions for decorating your masks. Try different colors on masks to obtain unusual effects.
1. Cut and fold colored paper to make hats, ears, beaks and horns.
2. Wind strips of colored paper firmly around a pencil until they curl, to make hair, eyelashes, whiskers and beards.
3. Glue on other trimmings such as, wood shavings, ping-pong balls, fringed paper, cotton, broom straws, feathers, carrot greens, beads, earrings, fancy braids and any other trimming available.
4. Draw on eyeglasses, monocles, and any other decoration with colored wax crayons.
Make a Cereal Box Napkin Holder House
This napkin holder turns out really cute and you can make it from a recycled cereal bo. The first thing you do is get a greeting card envelope and open it up so that it looks like a house shape, as illustrated in (picture #1). Then get a cereal box and hold the envelope at the left corner and trace around the envelope to use as your guide when cutting (picture #2). Then turn around your box and hold the envelope at the bottom right side of the box (picture #3) and trace the open envelope again. Now get scissors and cut around the lines that you drew….keeping the bottom of the box intact. Now paint the remaining house-shaped box to look like a house. It helps to put a little bit of glue in the paint to make it stick to the waxed cereal box surface. Now let the paint dry and then give as a gift or start using to brighten up your breakfast table!
A Few Fun Ideas for Play with Cereal Boxes
Empty cereal cartons can be used for many play ideas. Here are a few.
(1) Build towers and castles. Place cartons on top of each other. Make them so that you have passages and tunnels. Place toy men and animals on them.
(2) You can play store with your cartons. Place them on the table or on a box. Pretend that a customer comes in to buy the boxes.
(3) Open the tops of three cartons. Set them sideways on the floor. See how many marbles you can roll into them.
(4) With a parent’s help you can trace animals, masks, and flat boats from the boxes. When they are cut out, you can color them.
Get Chipper and start recycling some Cereal boxes! What can YOU do with a cereal box?
Chipper Tips: The 500 Year Shopping Trip (REUSABLE BAGS)
Most of you probably already know that the majority of plastic bags are not recycled or reused. Every person in the United States uses an average of 330 plastic bags each year. That’s 100 billion plastic bags all together! Many cities and states are banning plastics bags in order to cut down this outrageous number of wasted bags since it can take up to 500 years for one of them to decay in a landfill. Each plastic bag is a partially made of petroleum and other harmful chemicals that leak into the ground where they veeeryyyyy slllloooowwwwllllyyyy decompose.
Ken Prue, San Diego’s recycling program manager, gave this solid list of why plastic bags are not recycled in addition to all the obvious reasons:
1) It is cost prohibitive to recycle plastic bags or other types of plastic film or plastic wrap in the curbside program.
2) The recycled bags have little value, and when collected get badly contaminated, decreasing their value further.
3) There are virtually no markets in the U.S. for curbside-recovered plastic bags, and international markets are not much better.
4) A bigger problem with collecting plastic bags curbside is that they get wound up in collection and processing equipment, requiring maintenance that costs money and time, and creates inefficiencies for processing all the recyclables.
But there is a cheap and easy alternative! It’s called a shopping bag. They are reusable, come in various sizes, and are apparently very chic in France : ) Most are sold at a variety of groceries stores or you can buy a bunch online for as little as $1! Have trouble remembering them when you hit the store (like I do)? Leave some in the trunk of your car or by the door so you can grab them on your way out. Reuse the plastic bags you can’t avoid or take them to your local Safeway, where they have a plastic bag drop off. Many of Chipper’s books and products come with our reusable totes, good for shopping, the beach, or when ever you need a bag! Be apart of the green action with Chipper and decline plastics bags whenever possible!
Think paper bags are better? Think again ans find out why here.
Chipper Crafts: Recyled Watering Can!
Plant some fruits and vegetables this summer with your kids!
Nothing is better during the long summer break than having a craft day with the kids! Especially recycled crafts. They are easy, fun, and help save the planet by reusing! Crafts expand your child’s mind and provide them with challenges they need to grow. Crafts also involves working with your hands, which builds dexterity and motor function. Any form of creativity is a healthy and relaxing outlet!
This summer, get your kids outside and helping with water the garden or indoor plants by making their very own, home-made watering can! It’s easy to do for kids ages 4 and up and not many materials are used.
What you’ll need:
- Milk jug with handle (1 gallon, ½ gallon, or pint)
- Plastic funnel
- Washable fine-point marker
- Scissors, paper towels
- Scotch tape, white duct tape
- Decorating items
How to make it:
- Make sure the plastic milk jug is washed thoroughly, dried, with labels removed before beginning. Place the funnel (4-inch, 3-inch, or 2-inch diameter) in desired spout position, opposite the handle of the milk jug.
- Trace around the funnel with a washable fine-point marker.
- Cut out a circle approximately ¼ inch inside the circle outline, then wipe away the outline.
- Compress the funnel slightly and pop its wide side into the container. Use Scotch tape to hold in desired place.
- Help child cut strips of white duct tape and tape the funnel in permanent position, removing Scotch tape as you go.
- Decorate using googly eyes, stickers, Sharpie markers, glitter and glue, adhesive vinyl letters, or whatever you can find!
Next time you are searching for a fun activity, test your child’s creativity by having them grab some items out of the recycling bin and creating a craft! Get Chipper and get busy this summer break!
Recycling 101
We are told recycling is important and necessary to sustain our planet’s resources and environment. This is undoubtedly true, but what are some strategies TO recycle? What CAN’T be recycled? Where do all the materials we recycle GO anyways? After some research on the National Recycling Coalition website (www.nrc-recycle.org/dos.aspx), here is some basic information and a few tips to improve your recycling efficiency!
- CLEANLINESS COUNTS: Rinsing cans and keeping boxes out of the weather makes them easier to process, thus keeping costs down.
- PAY ATTENTION TO WHAT GOES IN YOUR BIN: Be an accurate recycle-er! Cereal boxes are good but not greasy pizza boxes; recycle your milk jugs but take off the caps. Check your bin’s lids and follow instructions!
- GOOD BETS: Steel cans, aluminum, newspapers, magazines, junk mail, plastics bottles, glass bottles and jars, ad any kind of clean, dry cardboard can all be recycled (sometimes for money!) at your local recycling center.
- PROBABLY NOT: Styrofoam, light bulbs, food-soiled paper, wax paper, and ceramics are probably not recyclable. Be aware and try to use less of these materials.
- DO RECYCLE ELECTRONICS: Recycle your old computers and cell phones. Check out Dell, Stables, and Waste Management Recycle America Web sites for information on how can recycle these items.
- HAZARDOUS WASTES HAVE THEIR PLACE: Household hazardous wastes, like paint cans, motor oil, antifreeze, car batteries, pesticide, pool chemicals, etc., usually need to be disposed of separately. Again, check your community resources and guidelines.
Sometimes recyclable products are recycled into exactly what you’d expect. Old newspapers are recycled into new newspapers, and old glass bottles are recycled into new glass bottles. However, there are thousands of different products created out of recycled materials! Here are just a few.
GLASS BEVERAGE CONTAINERS are recycled into materials for roads, marbles, decorative tiles, surfboards, and jewelry.
FIVE PLASTIC SODA BOTTLES yield enough fiber for one extra-large T-shirt, one square foot of carpet, or enough fiber to fill one ski jacket.
PLASTIC BOTTLES are also recycled into carpet, park benches, picnic tables, park benches, pipes, flowerpots, and sleeping bags.
MILK JUGS are recycled into sandbox toys, tea sets, and cookware.
STEEL AND ALUMINUM CANS are recycled into new cars, bikes, appliances, cook ware, lawn chairs, window frames, toys, fire hydrants, and tools.
NEWSPAPER is recycled into festive wrapping paper, construction paper, tissues, game boards, animal bedding, puzzles, and telephone books.
WORN-OUT SNEAKERS are recycled into material used in basketball courts, tennis courts, athletic feilds, running tracks, and playgrounds.
TIRES are recycled into shoes, purses, raincoats, umbrellas, farm tools, and hats.
FLIP-FLOPS are recycled into doormats, jewelry, toys, and furniture.
MIXED PAPER is recycled into tissues, napkins, paper towels, school supplies (folders, index cards, and notebooks, and even cat litter.
CARDBOARD is recycled into brown paper lunch bags, cereal boxes, and soap boxes.
Once you start recycling and get into the habit, it becomes second nature. And you will be blown away by how little you actually throw away! Get Chipper and start recycling today!
