What Is Earth Day All About?
On April 22,1970 about 20 million Americans celebrated the first Earth Day to show how much they care about the planet. A U.S, senator named Gaylord Nelson founded Earth Day to make more Americans aware of the damage people were doing to the environment. He asked Denis Hayes, a college student, to organize the Earth Day events that year. 20 years later, Hayes organized the first International Earth Day. About 200 million people in 141 countries participated.
To celebrate, many people use the day to do projects that will help the Earth. The goals are to find ways to limit pollution, save endangered animals and plants, clean up public places, plant trees and recycle objects that would normally end up in a landfill.
The Art of Recycling
Every art teacher knows the value of using recyclables when making art. It saves money, fosters creativity by using imagination and creativity to make something new from something old and it teaches children that it’s not necessary to run to the store and spend money anytime something breaks or gets used up.
Many children don’t want to use broken crayons, or crayons that the paper has been torn off, even though they still get the job done when coloring a picture. This project will show you a fun, easy way to turn all your unloved yet still useful crayons into something new!
Supplies:
You will need pieces of blue, green, and white crayons, a muffin tin, an oven, clear treat bags, curling ribbon and a pair of scissors.
Instructions:
1. Preheat your oven to 300 degrees.
2. Remove the paper from the blue, green, and white crayons and break them into small pieces.
3. Arrange pieces of all three colors in the muffin tin, filling each section about 1/2 or 2/3 full.
4. Bake the crayons for about 20 minutes. If you heat them too long, the colors will mix together and become muddy looking.
5. Let the pan cool for 15 minutes on the stovetop, then put it in the refrigerator for 15 minutes.
6. Once you take the pan out of the refrigerator, the crayons will pop out easily. They are now ready to use!
I made these with my high school class last year to give to the elementary students. We put them in cellophane bags and tied them shut with curling ribbon.
You can use silicon molds as well as muffin pans to make crayons with a variety of shapes and colors!
