Join the PepsiCo Recycle Rally

Recycling has always been super important in our homes. We understand that this great big Earth that we live on is a precious gift, and one that we want to last for even more generations. As our children get older we've try to stress the importance of recycling and taking care of the planet we enjoy every day. When we learned about the PepsiCo Recycle Rally we couldn't wait to join in!

What is PepsiCo's Recycle Rally? 

The Recycle Rally is a free nationwide program that began in 2010 to directly benefit K-12 schools and their students.  The program has pooled together valuable resources and incentives to make recycling not only rewarding, but fun and easy so that students will want to continue recycling well beyond the school year.

Whether your school has a well established recycling program in place, or if they are just starting out, the Recycle Rally program will help boost excitement and provide tools to help make recycling a huge deal for your student and their peers. To date already over 100 million plastic cans and bottles have been collected and over $1,000,000 in prizes have been rewarded to participants. How amazing is that?!

With back-to-school festivities and excitement in full swing we couldn't think of a better time to participate in such a fun program - one that has life long benefits for our students! Joining the PepsiCo Recycle Rally was so easy, and the rewards...priceless!

Fun & Easy Ways to Get Kids to Help Recycle

As adults recycling has just become a part of our everyday environment. It's easy for us to save our recyclables, place them in the correct bins, and understand the importance that this small little daily task can make a big impact. For kids that is a harder concept to comprehend. Understandably their worlds are filled with so many new facts and fun activities that such a small part of their day - such as recycling that water bottle - might go unnoticed. After checking out some of the amazing Recycle Rally resources, we implemented a few suggestions of how to get kids to help recycle as well as came up with a few creative ways ourselves. 

• Create a Recycling Station. One of the easiest ways to get kids involved in recycling is to explain to them what recyclable materials are and how to sort them. Once the concept is presented you can create a recycling station for them to begin recycling independently in your own home or classroom. It's such an easy way to get them involved and by placing a few small to medium sized bins in an easily accessible area they have a place to put their accumulated recyclables. 

• Recycle to Learn. Check with your PTA or school to see if you can send in your recyclables for any classroom instructional needs. Teachers are often looking for additional supplies to help make learning fun. The STEM teacher at our school sends out a monthly list of needs and often requests bottles, cans, and other recyclables to be used in their classroom for various projects and lessons. You never how far an empty water bottle might go in the vast world of learning. So contact your school and see what talented ways your recyclables can help beyond the recycling bin. 

• Go on a Trash Treasure Hunt.  It's always astonishing to us what people will just throw away in a park, trail, soccer field, or even on our own neighborhood sidewalks. One fun way to teach your little ones to do a little good is to go on a trash treasure hunt. Bring a few bags, a few protective gloves, and let them loose in a safe area that you know could probably use a little help cleaning and recycling (we're looking at you little league baseball fields!). The person who fills up their bag the most in 15 minutes wins! This is such an easy task and one that instills a valuable lesson beyond the game. Nothing will make your heart soar more than when you see your playground rock star unsolicited pick up trash to put in the bin or grab a discarded soda bottle to save to place in a recycling bin later. 

We love how the Recycle Rally has sparked our excitement for recycling. It's amazing what the simple reminder of a sticker or a quick and easy recycling game can do for the community - and the environment - in the long run. 

We can't wait to see what the rest of the school year encourages and hope that you will join us in the PepsiCo Recycle Rally as well! If you are interested in participating sign up here. 

What fun and creative ways are you encouraging your kids to recycle? 

Carrie Beth & Jen

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Recycled Glitter Sensory Bottle

Happy Earth Day Eve everyone! Today we are going to share a fun, and easy craft that is not only made from a recycled bathroom products, but it is a great sensory tool for your little ones!

I'm not sure about you, but a large majority of our weekly recycling comes from our bathrooms. The shampoo bottles, the toilet paper rolls, the bandaid boxes - it all starts to add up. Especially if one of The Cutes decides to play their favorite game - the "Let's unroll all the toilet paper, and spread it around the house" game.

Because we go through so many products so quickly, sometimes I like to look towards the bathroom recyclables for some craft inspiration. Sometimes a toilet paper roll becomes a race car tunnel, sometimes a shampoo bottle becomes a paint squirter, and sometimes an empty tissue box just becomes a tool to store fun treasures of the day in. Regardless of the item, with a little imagination that recyclable can have a second life before it officially hits the recycle bin. 

Today we are all about turning an old baby oil bottle into a new sensory craft. We love to make sensory bottles, and this glitter one is easy - using only a few supplies and only a minute or two of your time. Not to mention, the glitter sensory bottle is also an effective calm down tool - what parent wouldn't love that? ;) 

Before we start, just a few tips to keep in mind when it comes to using bathroom recyclables: 

• Double check with your local recycling agency what they accept. Try to create and give a second life to a product that can't otherwise be recycled. For example, floss containers or lotion pumps contain multiple parts and #5 plastics; therefore, most recycling facilities won't accept them. What new uses can you create using these items? 
• Try not to put too much paint or glue on your chosen craft when using a recyclable product. These can create a problem for the machines handling the recycling process, and then would no longer be recyclable. 
• Avoid cutting large bottles as this might prevent recyclables from entering the recycle machines properly, and thus rendering them non-recyclable. 

Ok, now for the craft...

GLITTER SENSORY BOTTLE

Materials Needed: 

- One clear bottle with top

- Water

- Glitter glue or clear glue and glitter color of your choice

- Food coloring if desired

Instructions: 

1: Make sure your bottle is clean. Rinse until all product residue has been removed, and dry. 

2: Fill bottle approximately 3/4 of the way with luke warm water.
3: Add a few drops of food coloring if desired.

4: Fill remainder of bottle with glitter glue (it should take the whole bottle or almost all depending on the size of your container).

Note: The glue sinks all the way to the bottom. 

5: Close the bottle with the top, and then shake until glue is fully dispersed amongst the mixture. (Note: We love the baby oil tops because they are baby proof. If your container is not baby proof, consider glueing the top down.) For added fun let the kids shake it up.

6: Just keep shaking. Now your little one can enjoy just shaking and watching all the glitter gracefully float around the bottle.

Such a fun and simple craft to do with materials we already had at our disposal, and The Cutes get a great lesson on being able to see what they think of as trash as treasure.

And they love coming back to their glitter sensory bottles over and over again to watch the glitter float. It's calm. It's quiet. It's fun. And it's about the only non-messy glitter craft on the planet. I'll take it!

If you are looking for more tips and tricks to transform your bathroom products into recyclable DIY projects take a peek at the Johnson & Johnson Consumer Inc. Care To Recycle website. Johnson & Johnson has created this fabulous recycling program to serve as an informative reminder of what personal care items can recycled, showcase some tips to making recycling easier in your bathrooms, and share some absolutely fabulous DIY and craft projects you can make with your recyclables to give them a second life. I love the darling bottle vase DIY!

What crafty idea do you have to transform your bathroom recyclables? 

Happy Earth Day everyone!

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I was selected for this opportunity as a member of Clever Girls and the content and opinions expressed here are all my own.

Children's Book Club: Commotion in the Ocean

Later this week is the celebration of Earth Day, and we asked our littles for this month's children's book club selection to pick their favorite earth related story. It's no surprise to us that they chose an ocean story. They love all things sharky these days. 

Today's pick comes from a great series of colorful nature related books. It must be popular among The Cutes friends too because we have received quite a few copies of this story as gifts. Paired with our fun (and super easy!) recycled craft you can share in the celebration of our great planet with your kiddos too. 

April's Selection: 

Commotion in the Ocean by Giles Andreae

From the Back Cover: 

"There's a curious commotion, at the bottom of the ocean; I think we ought to go and take a look. You'll find every sort of creature, that lives beneath the sea; swimming through the pages of this book." The sequel to the best-selling "Rumble in the Jungle," this delightful new collection of poems includes fun rhymes about the creatures who live in and around the ocean. Children will delight in the snappy poems and colorful illustrations about whales, walruses, penguins, polar bears, stingrays and sharks.

Activity: Recycled Ocean Sensory Bottles

Ocean in a Bottle

Materials: 

- Clear water bottle with top

- Baby Oil

- Blue Food Coloring

- Water

Instructions: 

1: Make sure the inside of the bottle is washed and clean.

2: Fill the bottle half way with water.

3: Fill the remainder of the bottle with baby oil leaving a little air at the top. 

4: Add a few drops of blue food coloring. 

5: Close with top and make sure it is secure to avoid spills.

6: Let your little one shake or sway the bottle side to side to create ocean waves. 

(Side note: I totally remember making a version of the ocean in a bottle as a child. Talk about a throw back to the 80's!)

Jelly Fish in a Bottle

Materials: 

- One clear grocery bag (We used the one that we bring our fruit home in.)

- Clear water bottle with top

- Water

- Blue food coloring

- Thread or floss

Instructions: 

1: Cut the bottom part of your bag off. 

2: Fold bag in half and cut out one square section.

3: Create the jellyfish head by pushing the middle of the square up in a circle and tying off with your thread/floss. Leave the string a little loose so that there is an air pocket available.

4: For the tentacles cut the bottom into strips keeping well below the thread tie off. 

5: Fill the head slightly with water and place in your water bottle (leave an air pocket). 

6: Fill the bottle with water and add a few drops of food coloring. 

7: Secure tightly with the top.

8: Let your child turn the bottle upside down to see the jellyfish float up and down in the water. 

CHILDREN'S BOOK CLUB 2016

| January | February | March |

Happy reading and crafting!

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