Coffee Filter Shamrocks

Materials: Coffee filters, green markers, spray bottle, scissors

Activity: Have your child color the coffee filters using green markers. Once done coloring spray coffee filters with spray bottle (filled with water). I recommend putting a paper towel on a paper plate and putting the filter on the top. The markers will bleed and run, so you need to have something underneath to soak up the running marker. Cut into shamrock shapes.

Truffula Trees

Here are our Truffula trees. We made them yesterday, but I had to wait for them to dry to "assemble" them. Right now (in the pic) they are just laying on my counter because I can't decide what color of paper to glue them to. I want to put them on paper, so I can hang them up. But I can't make a decision right now. Haha.

Materials: Yellow construction paper, coffee filters, markers, spray bottle, glue
Activity: Give your child a coffee filter and marker and have them color it. Once they are done, place the coffee filter on a paper plate with a paper towel underneath it (under the coffee filter). Have your child spray the coffee filter with water until the color starts to bleed. Allow to dry. (Usually after about 20 minutes or so I take the paper towel out and just put the filter on the plate. I think it dries faster this way.) Use the yellow paper to make trunks of the trees. Glue pieces together when top of tree is dry.

If you aren't familiar with the story the Lorax, it is basically about the Lorax trying to save these truffula trees. It's a great book to go along with an earth day theme or to talk to your kids about recycling or being "green". Another thing we use to do in my classroom is to make a recycle collage. We'd use as many things as possible out of our recycle bin to make collages and pictures. It's a great way to teach that things can be reused, and if they can't recycling them is best.

This activity was inspired by The Lorax.