Earth Day day-by-day (Day 8)

Let's love our Planet and try each day, 

to do all things the greener way!!!

Day 8: Sign a pledge to protect our Earth

Ok, so we are not the type of people who would take the easier way, so naturally, we didn't just print out some paper and had the kids sign it after we talked about what was written on it. We had to take the more difficult, but yet more fun road, which helped the kids memorize the pledge main points! This is definitely hands-on activity!

Simply said - we made paper mache Earth and stuck the pledge points to it!

Here is what you need:

For the paper mache recipe - 1 part of flour to 2 parts of water

(this will depend on how big your project will be, but your final solution should be more pasty than liquid)

strips of newspaper

balloon

paint

paint brushes

paper

mod podge

First, blow up the balloon into smaller size. We decided for smaller only because of the kids' ages. They wouldn't have that much patience to complete too big of an Earth)

Then, mix the flour and water together in a bowl.

As you are mixing, add water or flour, depending on the consistency of the mixture. It has to feel more pasty.

Then, have the kids dip the newspaper strips into the mixture and place them wet unto the balloon.

It is better to cover the balloon with at least 3 layers of the newspaper, to make sure the final product will be durable. This is what you will end up with.

Leave it to dry for at least 24 hours or till completely dry to the touch. Our spheres ended up pretty hard. The only thing I would recommend is that you find a good place to keep them while they are drying. We left them in the bowls and the lower part didn't dry the same way and we had to fix the project. The sphere should be kept in a place where it could get nicely evenly air dry.

Pop the balloon inside.

Naturally, we had the kids paint the oceans first, since they cover most of our Planet.

Then they went on to paint the continents and clouds.

We let that dry another day. In the meantime, we read few books that I talked about in one of our previous posts, and discussed how could we save the Earth. We typed 5 main points into the computer, I printed it out, cut it out, and the kids pasted it to the Earth, using mod podge. 

Mod podge helps the paper nicely curve around the Planet's shape. 

It worked out great! Now we can hang it up in our house and be always reminded about what to do to live greener and save our Planet Earth!