B-Day Decorations; Reduce-Reuse-Recycle
This year, my kids had a really small birthday party. Nothing much, just a few friends and a cake. Nevertheless, they wanted to decorate the whole house. For Einstein E and Power P, the word 'decorate' usually means colourful and plenty. You know, paper chains, balloons, sweets and things like that. We decided to make our decorations.
This way, they got to:
- reduce (not buy new deco),
- reuse (used wrapping paper, old cardboard and some old magazines) and
- recycle (OK, the decorations are still on the walls and hanging from the ceiling, but in a few weeks we shall put them for recycling)
Why should we try to RRR more? Interesting facts about recycling:
- One ton of recycled cardboard saves 175 litres of oil.
- Recycling plastic takes 88% less energy than making it from raw materials.
- Glass can be recycled and re-manufactured an infinite amount of times and never wear out.
You can read find more interesting facts about recycling here.
Materials:
- used wrapping paper
- cardboard or construction paper
- old magazines
- some paint and paintbrushes
Paper chains
Step 1.
Step 2.Step 3.Make the first "link." All you need to do is tape, glue, or staple the far ends of one paper strip together into a ring. Einstein E decided to use the tape and Power P glued the rings.
The first chain is done. Dozens more to go :)Number 6.
Step 1.
Step 2.Cut out. We used cardboard which was pretty thick for the boys to cut, so I did the cutting this time.
Step 3.
Stars.
Step 1.
Step 2.Make magazine paper rolls. (Instructions).
Step 3.
Paint the rolls. We used egg cartons as a holders.
Step 4.Cut the rolls into different sizes.
And glue the rolls on the shapes.Step 5.
Make hangers. We simply hot glued pieces of wool thread and let the stars hang from the ceiling.
Once everything is done, let your kids decorate. I had to keep reminding myself that our ideas about what's nice or too colourful differ greatly :)