Showing posts with label Water. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Water. Show all posts

Sunday, March 22, 2015

World Water Day is Here


Yep, today is officially World Water Day!  If you read my post a few days ago, Water Drop bookmarks, then you knew that already.  Today is a day to celebrate water - learn about water, water related issues and plan for future water management.  And as I said in my last post, this year's theme is Water and Sustainable Development.

 reusable scripture bags

The kids and I have been talking about sustainability and what that means.  How can we preserve and protect the water that we use?  Some ideas that we have discussed are:  take shorter showers, turn off your sinks/faucets when not in use (even between brushing your teeth), reuse water when possible (rain collection barrels), use reusable water bottles and grocery bags.... Austin has embraced using reusable shopping bags for awhile now.  I picked up these fun reusable scripture bags a few weeks ago at Family Christian.

Nature Girl by Karen Whiting and Rebecca White

We have several water books that we have been reading through.  We have also been reading Nature Girl (a guide to caring for God's creation) by Karen Whiting and Rebecca White.  Chapter 5 is titled Wet and Wonderful Water.  This short chapter focuses on oil and water, water purification, and water conservation.  The kids and I discussed how oil and water do not mix and how oil spills are a huge problem for our oceans.  Quick clean-up and oil spill prevention play a big part in our environment.  It was interesting to learn that 70% of Saudi Arabia's drinking water comes from desalination, removing the salt from water.  And there were more easy tips on how to conserve water - sweep driveways instead of hosing them down, rinse fruits and vegetables in a pan of water rather than running water, collect roof water as it runs down the gutter to water gardens, soak pots and pans to clean them instead of using running water, place dropped ice cubes in plants instead of tossing them in the sink, and more.

Making little changes in our lives can truly have a big impact on our world.  And while today is a great day to discuss these ideas they can be implemented any day or even every day.

Disclosure: I am proud to be a Family Christian Blogger and Affiliate.  I was provided with a Family Christian certificate to facilitate a post about World Water Day.  This is my second post in this topic. All opinions expressed are my own.

Friday, March 20, 2015

Water Drop Bookmarks

Disclosure: I am proud to be a Family Christian Blogger and Affiliate.  I was provided with a Family Christian certificate to facilitate a post about World Water Day.  All opinions expressed are my own.

The kids and I made water drop bookmarks in celebration of World Water Day this year.  If you don't know World Water Day happens on March 22nd every year, just a few days away!  It is a day for water celebration.  It is a time to learn about water, water related issues and plan for future water management.  Each year there is also a theme, this year's theme is Water and Sustainable Development.  I am going to talk about this even more in the next few days.  Today I wanted to show you our World Water Day craft inspired water drop bookmarks.

I ordered some fun craft supplies on-line from Family Christian, a Giant Art Jar and a perler bead set.  We used the colored craft sticks from our Giant Art Jar and blue perler beads to make our water drop bookmarks.  See below! 

Hope you enjoy our bookmarks.

 Giant Art Jar

 Colored Craft Sticks

perler bead set

close up

  We formed water drops using the flower model.

 
 We were able to shape several water drops at a time.

  about to iron the perler beads

 ironing the perler beads

 Water drop - this is what the drops look like with the back side fused together and the front side not melted together.

 melted side

We melted both sides for some drops and left one side not melted for others.

 Simply attach the water drops to the craft sticks using hot glue.

attached

 Water drop bookmarks

 finished bookmarks

 Using one of our bookmarks.


  Our bookmark in action.

up close

up close

 Here we are using our bookmarks in our water books

 We have some fun water books that we have been reading.

These bookmarks are simple, and so much fun!  What do you think?  This is an easy reminder for us to think about the water we use and what we can do to conserve it.