Homemade hats for kids: Earth Day recycled trash crafts with free printable paper hat patterns

Got kids Covid quarantined kids with stuck-at-home-itis? Got rainy-day, can't go out to play bored kids? Or, maybe you're looking for recycled trash crafts for Earth Day on April 22? If so, here's my teacher-mama first aid kit. Homeschool parents and teachers, your recycle bin is your best bud for hands-on eco-friendly, eco-nomical lesson plans. Repurpose and reuse household stuff in nifty, thrifty crafts, games and activities. Today's recycled trash crafts feature homemade hats for kids with hours of preschool dress up fun! Here's a guide plus links to free printable paper hats (this link goes to Enchanted Learning, another bestie for homeschool teacher-mamas and papas!)

The first prototype for these homemade hats was developed by our oldest daughter at 20 months old. We kept her blocks and toys sorted in recycled 5 pound peanut butter pails. One day, Little Miss emptied one, plopped it on her head, tucked handle under chin and voila—an instant helmet. Then she proceeded to saddle up and ride baby brother like her noble steed! After I removed the bucket handle for her safety and her from brother for his, I realized what really cool hats for kids can be made with a little repurpose and reuse ingenuity! 

Weed through your recycle bin for plastic ice cream buckets, butter tubs, coffee canisters you can repurpose and reuse. Size them so they fit child's head without any leftover. You don't want hats to completely envelop the child's face. You can repurpose and reuse milk jugs as awesome knight's helmets. Remove handle and use hole from the handle as a helmet visor. Cut a piece of plastic and attach with brads to make a visor flap.

Let children paint color, cover and decorate homemade hats however they wish. Wrap in aluminum foil for an armored helmet. Or have young inventors make hats, helmets and headpieces for robots, soldiers, aliens, animals, astronauts. Make homemade crowns for kings and queens and princesses (cut both ends out to make cylinder shape and decorate. Make cone-shaped medieval lady hats by rolling a square of paper in a funnel shape. Trim edge even. Staple recycled crepe paper streamers to hat. Cut decorations from recycle bin stuff. Repurpose and reuse old headgear in cute homemade hats for kids costumes. Repurpose and reuse silk flowers, fabric scraps, ribbons, yarn, buttons, appliques, and faux gems as decorations for your recycled crafts. Kids might wear their hats in an Earth Day parade! 

SS42 has lots of free printable paper hats for kids in several styles--baseball hats, hats with monster heads (zombies, vampire, spider web and pumpkin). There are free printable paper animal hats with noses and bills to go with animal costumes and a paper bucket hat to design and color yourself for Hat Day. Here are free printable paper hat patterns like the pointy party paper hats that attaches with a rubber band. 

My grampa was a newspaper printer. He always made newspaper hats for me and my kids (probably where my little hat maker got her inspiration).  In "Curious George Rides a Bike" George shows an easy way to make paper hat patterns or paper boats from newspaper. Here's his free printable paper hat pattern you can incorporate into reading lesson plans or activities for Earth Day. I think I'll make one in Grampa's memory! 

Earth Day recycled trash crafts, collage art, preschool lesson plans from the Barney Bag

Here's a blast from the past, just in time for Earth Day, April 22. Bust out the Barney Bag and whip a bunch of recycled trash crafts for kids! Wait, you don't what a Barney Bag is? PBS's Barney the dinosaur had a magic bag that the kids on his show Barney & Friends used to make crafts. These activities work great for earth science lesson plans on ecology and environment. 

I carried out the Barney Bag tradition with my children, who are now grown with children of their own. As a homeschool family, we didn't watch much TV, but they did love PBS in general and Barney & Friends in particular. (Here are free printable Barney coloring pages for a walk down memory lane!) We used the Barney Bag in preschool learning centers and arts and crafts lesson plans you can too. Upper elementary and middle schoolers will love making these recycled trash crafts for kids. Use them as hands-on ecology activities too! Here's a Q & A to get started. 

What is a Barney Bag? On Barney & Friends, it was a rainbow-colored satchel about the size of a small suitcase that contained all kinds of "gizmos and gadgets, odds and ends; even some old strings"--aka lots of cast-off stuff! Perfect for recycled trash crafts for kids or collage art learning centers. 

How do you make a Barney Bag? Keep a large recycled trash shopping bag near the recycle bin. Toss in unique packages, fabric scraps, odd-shaped containers, bits of yarn and fiber, foil and wrapping paper scraps, used ribbon and bows, decorative trim, mismatched buttons, gumball machine toys, assorted game pieces, old magazines, stickers, envelopes with stamps, playing cards, metal washers and springs, small broken utensils, packing peanuts and just about any discarded item imaginable. Repurposing these items teaches valuable real-life Earth Day lesson plans. 

When should I use it? You can weave the Barney Bag into collage art learning centers and lesson plans. But it works best to haul out Barney Bag spontaneously. If children are tired or grouchy, or it's too yucky to play outside, collage art perks them up.  Throwing a spontaneous craft party was a real sanity-saver for me when everyone came down with chicken pox at once!  

How do children use the Barney Bag? Assemble a tray of glue sticks (or plastic lids with glue and Q-tips), scissors (plain and decorative edged), glitter, crayons or markers, paints, shaped paper punches and stamps. Use up dried beans or pasta in collage art learning centers. Spread an old tablecloth or shower curtain on the floor to protect against spills. Make paint coveralls from dad's old T-shirts. Or recycled trash plastic grocery bags (handles are shoulder straps. Cut bottom off to slip over head. Cover the table with newspaper. Announce Barney Bag time by singing Barney's little ditty. 

"So we'll ask ourselves the question: what shall we make today? With imagination and a piece of string, we'll see what we can make today, yeah, we'll see what we can make today!" Make memories and the environment happy with these Earth Day trash crafts! 

Giant Panda Bear printables, Kung Fu Panda lesson plans, activities coloring pages for Earth Day

Did you know that the Giant Panda is the Earth Day mascot? This will greatly please my grandson Lucian whose best friend is a panda bear named "B"! Here are free printable panda bear lesson plans, activities and coloring pages for us all to celebrate! 

First-School is an awesome website for educational printables and the subject of free printable panda bear activities is no exception. There are games, science lesson plans, literature based printables, worksheets, word search, coloring pages and more. Making Learning Fun has cute panda bear printables too. 

Living Montessori Now has links to Giant Panda printables with games, crafts and preschool activities. Lesson Planet has a plethora of free printable zoo lesson plans, including many Giant Panda activities. Enchanted Learning has dozens of free printable lesson plans on pandas. There are worksheets, crossword puzzles, maps, endangered species activities, science lesson plans and more. What could be more perfect for Earth Day?

How about doing a unit on Eric Carle's "Panda Bear, Panda Bear What do you See?" for Earth Day, April 22? Here are Eric Carle printables including some from that best-loved book. And what would a unit on pandas be without some activities involving Po, the Kung Fu Panda? Most of these have printables on other types of bears too. 

Free printable Dr. Seuss Lorax science lesson plans for Earth Day

 

Dr. Seuss’s  book "The Lorax" is the perfect book to read for Earth Day as it explores  corporate waste, pollution and lack of environmentally friendly practices. Here are environmental science activities from The Lorax. Use these literature-based Lorax lesson plans for Earth Day lesson plans and crafts. Start with free printable Lorax activities and Dr. Seuss lesson plans.

Text to Life Dr Seuss lesson plans. The Lorax is a parable or allegory. Characters represent ideas or people. As you read the Lorax ask students to decide who these characters represent: The Once-ler (corporations, society, people), The Boy (children, the future generation), The Lorax (God, Mother Nature, a Supreme Being).

Lorax story maps. After reading The Lorax, students should design environmental science diagrams to show food web and pollution impacts charts. Show in sequence how each species relies on the Trufulla trees. These could be drawn in cartoon format or as flowcharts. Now show backwards, how the Once-ler's factory takes out not only too the Trufulla trees away, but pollutes the air and water and harms the animals and plants. Here are endangered species printables to show what that looks like in real life.

Explore environmental science vocabulary from the Lorax--sustainable, ecology, symbiotic relationship, biodegradable, environment, pollution, interdependence, interconnected, food web, food chain, carbon footprint, carbon cycle, Make 3D graphic organizers by folding paper into 6 parts. for sequenced cartoon strip. Make a sequence book by accordion folding a wide strip of paper. On each page or frame, students write a word or sentence explaining what damage the factory created and how it affects each animal group. Or make a circle chart to show how nature is interconnected, by folding paper circles in six parts. Here are free printable habitat dioramas.

Environmental science experiments. Plant seeds. Here's an excellent text to life connection. Do as the Lorax and Once-ler advised and plant trees. Sprout seeds in simple terrariums by placing dried beans and wet paper towel in Ziploc bags. Or put carrot tops in water. Show how seeds need clean air and sun to grow. Place one seedling in a dark, dusty room such as a broom closet and others in the sun. Water some but not others. Compare results.

Writer's Workshop Dr. Seuss lesson plans. April is National Poetry Month. Write poems for Earth Day, telling what will happen "unless" people stop polluting and start caring for the earth. Or write an Earth Day song about why it is important to keep our world green. Draw shape poems, writing each line or sentence in the shape of the sun, trees, fish, birds, etc. The Lorax says he "speaks for the trees for the trees have no voice." Have children make posters, poems and songs to advocate for the trees.

Environmental science field trips and experiments. Go on a litter hunt. Take before and after pictures of the playground, woods or roadside. Give each student a recycled plastic bag and latex or plastic gloves. Count, weigh and measure how much trash was collected in 15 minutes. Chart and graph different kinds of litter and show what kinds of trash is most commonly thrown out. Start a recycling club. Take a field trip to visit a wildlife refuge, native tribal council, DNR station, nature center, fish hatchery or nature preserve. Wherever you live in this wide wonderful world, there are places to explore the wildlife in your area and folks committed to sharing their love of nature with students.

Environmental science skits. Students should write skits on reducing pollution and litter. Or retell The Lorax story. Explore the internet for new ways to reuse trash. For example, communities in Michigan create green eco-friendly park benches to made entirely from recycled plastic milk jugs.

Design a bird feeder, watering station and bird house. Use recycled materials like milk jugs. Compost food scraps. Or make bird seed cakes. Explore local songbirds in your area. Here are George Washington Carver printables with recycling ideas from the Reduce-Reuse-Recycle King himself!