Earth Day is on April 22nd every year and is the day to remember to take care of our planet, Earth. It is a good way to remind our families (and ourselves) that we must all do our part, and we can make a difference. Earth Day can be every day!
Show your kids they can make a difference and take care of Mother Earth by following the 3 magical R’s of thumb (well, green thumb!) – “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle”.
Reduce – This simply means, use less stuff!
Tips:
- Bring your own bags to the grocery store.
- Use reusable containers for leftovers and in your child’s lunch bag.
- Cut back on fast food meals (they pollute more than your body!).
- Turn off the faucet when your kids are brushing their teeth and only turn it on to rinse their mouths. According to the EPA (http://www.epa.gov/), you can save 8 gallons of water a day if everyone in your household turns off the water while they brush their teeth in the morning and at night.
Reuse – Use again rather than throw away.
Tips:
- Buy used children’s books.
- Donate old toys – Remind yourself you are giving someone else a gift.
Recycle – Make something new from something old.
Tips:
- Recycle aluminum, paper and plastic – if you take these materials to a recycling center, they can be used for other purposes to help our communities.
- Go to Obviously.com (http://www.obviously.com/recycle/) to find out what exactly can be recycled, which is called Commonly Recycled Materials.
Mini-Lesson for your kids on Earth Day: Earth Day was founded by Senator Gaylord Nelson (of Wisconsin) in the early 1960s. Nelson was concerned that environmental issues were not being focused on by our government. In his ‘go-green’ efforts, Nelson organized a nationwide grassroots demonstration in 1970 to promote conservation and awareness (more than 20 million Americans participated in this first Earth Day celebration). His demonstration took such interest that it became the 1st official Earth Day! Each year, April 22nd marks the celebration of Earth Day, and is now observed around the world.
Fun Facts About Earth Day
- Earth Day is big celebration for schools. On many school calendars, it is the third most activity-inspiring holiday, after Christmas and Halloween.
Recycling one aluminum can saves enough energy to watch a TV for three hours – it’s equivalent to half a gallon of gasoline.- April 22 is the first official day of Spring in the Northern hemisphere and of Fall in the Southern hemisphere and was chosen to be Earth Day for this reason.
- Never underestimate recycling: if every newspaper was recycled, we could save about 250,000,000 trees each year. Unfortunately only 27% of all American newspapers are recycled.
- More than 20,000,000 Hershey’s Kisses are wrapped each day, using 133 square miles of tinfoil. All that foil is recyclable, but not many people realize it.
- Only 11% of the earth’s surface is used to grow food.
- The world’s first national park was founded in 1872 at Yellowstone National Park in the US.
YouTube.com – Jack Johnson: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle – 3 “R” Song
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