App Advice has a new list of Apps for Earth Day at: http://appadvice.com/applists/show/ipad-apps-for-earth-day

From AppNewser:

We love hearing how you celebrated Earth Day! Thank you to Lucy Bigelow and her 5th Grade class at Lourdes Catholic School in Nogales, AZ for sharing their Earth Day art.

Here’s the the assignment Lucy Bigelow gave her class:

Art/Science Project: Earth Day Art
Create an Art Project using recycled items that you would normally throw away. The themes are: “Earth Day Carol,” “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle,” or “What the Earth means to me.” We will submit pictures of the art work to the Earth Day Carol website. You can watch the Earth Day Carol on YouTube or download the free app: Earth Day Carol. And remember to Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle!

Here are the students’ recycled artwork:

Earth Day Carol by Juan Carlos Ruiz

Earth Day Scene by Diego Canett

Earth Day Carol by Juan Carlos Ruiz

Robot by Zarina Gonzalez

Robot by Julian Rivas

Re-clock by Maria F. Zaied

LA Hat by David Quezada

Can Plane by Carolina Pesqueira

Bird Feeder by Ximena Parra

3 little guys by Jose Ramon, Fernanda, and Hector

Here’s what the students’ wrote about there projects:

Electrobot by Julian Rivas
The title of my robot is Electrobot, and his name is “Patricia”. Well, I made it with 16 pieces, like caps, cereal boxes, and water bottles. So, I used the bottles for arms and legs, and the boxes for the arms, head and stomach. I used the caps for eyes, ears, nose, and mouth. Something that inspired was that because everybody is throwing plastic away, and well, I wanted to reuse it.

The Re-clock by Maria F. Zaied
I made a clock made out of the top of a plastic box. I did it because I thought that it would be very creative to do it. The numbers of the clock are made of trash cut into numbers. But the best part of my project is that it works! It really tells the time, and I could hang it in my house and we would be inspired to reuse, reduce, and recycle.

Surfer by Sebastian Armenta (pictured under “Roboter”)
I made a surfer with straws, parts of a soda can, aluminum paper, and carton. I made Surfer, because I like to play at the beach, but I do not know how to surf. But when I go to the beach, they are going to give me surfing lessons. I like Surfer because he is really cool, and he is the best surfer of Hawaii, in the huge waves.

Scrooge and Styrofoam by Juan Carlos Ruiz
What inspired me was that the 2nd scene was the first ghost in the movie and it’s my favorite one. I used a to-go container, scissors, three bottles, the plastic bags, and a cup and tape.

Bird Feeder by Ximena Parra
I made a bird feeder because in my house a lot of birds fly. I got an orange juice bottle and I cut a circle in the middle. Then I cut the other side and then I made a little hole on both sides and I put a wooden spoon in it. I poured the food and I made a hole on top of the lid. Then I printed some pictures and glued them to the bottle. And that’s how I made my bird feeder.

Ghostly Night by Diego Canett
I recycled a cereal box, water bottle, broken glass, a plastic bag, and some poster board. I got the idea from Earth Day Carol when the ghost of plastic present visited Plastic Bottle Scrooge.

Can Plane by Carolina Pesqueira
I got inspired to make an airplane by a man who I saw across the border selling these huge can airplanes. Since my mom drinks a lot of soda, we had cans all over the house, so I thought, why not use the cans and make a plane.

LA Hat by David Quezada
I made a hat. It is made with an ice-cream bucket, a feather, a bed sheet, and some rope. I can’t take all the credit because my grandmother helped me.

Roboter by Zarina Gonzalez
I called my robot the Roboter. I used 21 things to make “Roboter”. I used 2 boxes to make the head and the belly. The belly opens and has a lot of structures working. I used 2 light bulbs  for the eyes. I used the ink of the printer for the legs. I used a broken hose for the arms and a stick for the mouth. It inspired me because I thought it would be cool and creative making a robot with only recycled things!

Soda Jewelry by Annette Garcia (not pictured)
I made some bracelets and a belt made out of old ribbon and a used shoe lace. I also used some soda can lids to add so it wouldn’t look so boring. I thought it was pretty cool! I really liked finding old things and turning them into something else!

We’d love to see your photographs and hear your updates of how you used Earth Day Carol with your students. Contact us at: info@earthdaycarol.org

One of the Earth Day activity ideas in our For Teacher section is to write haikus with students. Here are some examples I put together:

inside the landfill
there’s nothing to do but wait
–trash reminiscing

our plastic bottles
buried alive with caps on
dreaming of sunlight

decomposing peel
amongst friends in the compost
with wet wiggling worms

the plastic fork says:
“Reduce, Reuse, Recycle
for the planet—Please!”
—Torran

Have some Greenkus for Earth Day you want to share? Send them to us at: info@earthdaycarol.org

We’d love to know how you celebrated Earth Day this year!

Looking for an Earth Day activity to do with students on Monday? Visit the For Teachers page to get ideas about how to use Earth Day Carol in the classroom.

Creating recycled art is a fun project for students of all ages. Textile artist Elizabeth Fram has an amazing Recycled Art page showing how she created a scene from the story using items she found around the house.  You can see how she turned this:

Into this:

http://progressive.org/

Thank you very much to The Progressive for featuring the Earth Day Carol app on the bottom right-hand corner of their web-pages. We appreciate your support for the project!

Earth Day is on Monday and we want to share this free app with as many people as possible. We’d love it if you posted Earth Day Carol on your website/Facebook page or sent it to interested groups. Here’s a blurb you can use to help spread the word about Scrooge’s Earth Day Adventure:

Thank you to Janet Varney for the hilarious new narration on the app. Janet recorded the narration and it was edited by Jon Rustad at Famous Bakery Music.

Janet Varney’s cornucopia of fun showbiz stuff spans the spectrum, from nearly winning Ken Marino’s heart in the Ben Stiller-produced series, “Burning Love,” to producing and hosting the popular weekly Nerdist podcast, “The JV Club,” to hosting and producing stories for the Huffington Post’s streaming network, HuffPost Live. Janet co-founded the SF Sketchfest that, during each January/February of the past 12 years, has made San Francisco a comedy mecca. Janet’s voice spends its spare time in Republic City, where, as Korra in Nickelodeon’s immensely popular series, “The Legend of Korra,” she’s been reluctantly learning to airbend. janetvarney.com

Maitri Sojourner shared that “recycled art is near and dear to my heart, as I use recycled fabrics in my art,  and have been a recycler since my college years.”  Maitri purchases clothing at thrift stores and garage sales to cut up for her art, and has used discontinued sample books from upholstery stores.  Maitri’s friends also sleuth out unusual fabrics for her.  A friend recently gave her a beautiful royal blue silk robe that cost just $3 at a local thrift shop–Maitri is busy turning it into sky!  Maitri draws out her design on paper—rather like a cartoon, then transfers the shapes onto fabric, backs each piece with a double-sided heat-sensitive adhesive (available  by the yard from fabric stores), and adheres the piece to either paper or fabric.   Maitri says, “It’s fun to repurpose items—it’s a bit like a treasure hunt–and it’s just the right thing to do—REDUCE, REUSE, RECYCLE!!!”

Maitri splits her time between the Pacific Northwest in Washington and Oro Valley in Arizona. Read her artist statement in the About section. She can be reached at maitrisojourner@comcast.net