"Lights Out" Earth Day Activity

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We were looking at the calendar for next month the other day and my daughter asked, “Hey what’s Earth Day?” Oops mom and teacher fail!! Hahaha Anyway we had an impromptu lesson but I decided we definitely needed to have this discussion with everyone!

For family night the next week we talked about Earth Day and how it is a reminder to us to be aware of our surroundings and taking care of the Earth where we live. We made a list of things we could do to be better stewards:

Plant flowers
Garden
Recycle (papers, cans, newspapers, boxes)
No chemicals while cleaning
Use less electricity (turn out lights, turn off fans, electronics)
Buy recycled goodies
Reduce, Reuse, Recycle!!!!!

After we brainstormed our list we decided to focus on a few areas we could do better at.

The first was we research what goods that we use all the time could be bought that are recycled. This turned into quite an interesting search. We found that there is a new battery on the market that uses recycled batteries and materials. Who knew! We use a lot of batteries because of our Wii U so this was an exciting find.The batteries are Energizer AA and AAA EcoAdvanced.

We found them at our local Walmart right in the battery section. The are Energizer’s longest lasting alkaline battery which is awesome for how fast we go through them.

The next thing we really need to work on at our house is TURNING OFF LIGHTS!!! Seriously not a day goes by that I don’t say, “Turn off the light!!!”

I saw this cute idea many years ago in a parenting magazine and thought it was the perfect solution to our problem. We made door hangers to remind everyone to “turn off the lights!”

First we started with old empty cereal boxes. TIP: I always break these down and keep them handy for craft projects. The are a great for stencils or handmade book covers.

I free handed a light bulb and the girls cut it out and traced it over and over. We ended up with more light bulbs than doors so we are going to share them with our friends. (If you want one let me know I have a stack!!)