KIDS | Eco Arts & Crafts For Planet Earth

Mouse Bank

2010-04-01T04:20:00.000-07:00

Mouse banks made from plastic coke bottles! They were made for Astro kids show, I'm not sure which program and when it will be aired. The shoot was real fun I must say!

Sorry, don't have pictures to show the step by step but I'm sure when the kids look at this images they will be able to create their own cool versions of mouse banks.

Sock Doll

2009-12-05T05:48:00.000-08:00

I had a little doll making session at my nephew's 1st birthday party in Auckland. Didn't get to take photos as I was busy showing the kiddos how to make funny dolls. Haha, this was the funniest. It was quite a challenge as the little ones were hardly four years old and only two of us adults helping to make the dolls. With kids that age you really must have one adult to a kid. It was great fun all the same!

Teach your toddler ABC, make them Apple Banana Crackers

2009-08-09T10:09:00.000-07:00

Apple Banana Crackers Recipe

step ONE: spread one thick layer of Mashed Banana on a cracker
step TWO: lay Apple slices on top
step THREE: cover with another Cracker

*CHOMP*

Happy teaching!

Eco Project for ages 3 and up | HOW TO MAKE SOCK DOLLS

2009-06-29T19:46:00.000-07:00

These sock dolls are really fun and easy to make! Sit back and watch your kids amaze you with their creativity.

MATERIALS

Old newspaper
Old kids' socks
Toilet roll tube/ small plastic bottles
Junk such as fruit jackets, plastic bags, ragged cloth, paper bags, dried leaves etc etc etc
Eco friendly glue
Eco friendly marker/felt pen or magic color

INSTRUCTIONS

Crunch up 2 sheets of old newspaper into a ball the size of a tennis ball
Push it all the way into the sock
Next goes the toilet roll tube or bottle
If you're using tube simply tuck in the remaining of the sock into the tube
Draw eyes, nose and mouth on newspaper, cut out and stick
Decorate the doll and go wild with your assortment of junk!

Eco Crafts Workshop with Caterpillar | 24 June 09

2009-06-24T06:40:00.000-07:00

More awesome creations by the Caterpillar kids. I started the class by going through the Paper Lifecycle chart like what I did with the previous class.

Saskia is quite an artist. Initially she asked me to help her draw eyes as she doesn't know how ... after some coaxing from me she whipped up those cute lazy eyes all by herself and designed a dress from fruit jacket and used the paperbag handle as ribbon. The beanie is made from a cut up sock. Her doll's name is Flowery.

This is Qaila and her pretty pink dolly. She drew the eyes just like her own with long eye lashes, her doll does in a lot of ways resembles her looks. So pretty.

This is Kelly's doll. I love it, it's so comical and fun!

Kelly at work. Stuffing newspaper ball and toilet roll tube into the sock .

Marvin who thought it was funny dodging the camera so I never got to take a decent shot of him except this oneThis is Marvin's Mr Yellow Bow heehee... very funny. I especially like his color sense. The green blob on its head is the hair by the way.

Eco Crafts Workshop with Caterpillar

2009-06-21T17:54:00.000-07:00

I was really looking forward to my session with the Caterpillar kids after I returned from Ubud Bali. The kids at Green School really inspired me and I couldn't wait to see more great creations from these little geniuses!

I started the class by discussing the lifecycle of paper. Some of the kids already knew paper came from trees. Those who didn't found it rather fascinating. 'How could paper be from trees?' wondered Marvin. 'A tree!?' he went, with question marks hovering above his head.

Good quality illustration and print always works on kids a lot more effective than a page full of text. I got the kids to tell me their version of the stories first to get them thinking, and then I explained the illustration.

Before I started the workshop proper, as a warm up exercise I got the kids to fold things from newspaper. Syaza folded a boat, Sabrina made an origami bird, Anya made a river, Reiya made an art piece :) and Anya's kakak folded a plane. The whole idea was for them to realise how useful newspaper can be apart from just disseminating news. Newspaper is a wonderful craft material and they don't cost a cent.

The main purpose of the newspaper for today's class was to make balls for the eco doll workshop. I used to use tennis ball for the doll's head but it's not something every household has them. So, with just newspaper, toilet roll tubes, old socks, old mags and some junk the kids put together their own variations of cool dolls.

Look at Max's creation and check out the wings! He's very good with colors and has got good design sense. Great styling Max!

This is Syaza's little 'white' riding hood :)

Sabrina's cat in evil costume, haha, very creative!

Little 3 year old Reiya, very serious, showing us what we can do with newspaper instead of sending them for recycling or worst to the landfills!

Anya made Custard (left) a new friend for Strawberry (right). A clever way to use the fruit foam jackets. As you can tell she's a pink lady. "Anya, Custard look really pretty with the pink ribbon and pink dress!"Joel's moving octopus! Who would've thought? Very clever, Joel!

From left Joel, Ian, Anya, Syaza, Reiya, Max and Sabrina.

Green School Bali | Eco Doll Workshop

2009-06-10T23:44:00.000-07:00

This morning's session with the kinder kids at the kul kul campus in green school, Bali was FUNtabulous! It was my first time conducting a class during a holiday... without my magic tool box!

The usual materials for doll making are toilet roll tubes, tennis balls, old socks, magazine paper and marker pens. But there was no way I'd be able to find used tennis balls and collect toilet roll tubes in time for this class. I panicked a little but thanks to the inspiring energy in Ubud...churning out ideas was as simple as a wave of a magic wand. Abbakaddabra! and my new list appeared before my eyes. Plastic water bottles to replace roll tubes, crunched up newspaper to make balls and as soon as I got there I raided the garden for anything we could use to decorate the dolls.

All it took was 30 minutes for these little geniuses to make these super cool looking sock dolls.

The best craft class ever!

Esabelle's Eco Art Project | Strawberry the Lioness

2009-05-24T01:56:00.000-07:00

24 May 09

Hi, my name is Esabelle, I'm 6 years old. My project is making an eco doll out of ball, toilet roll tube and socks.

My doll will go traveling with my teacher, Penny. They're going to a little village called Ubud, in Bali, Indonesia. We will write and update each other about our daily eco adventures during that three weeks while she's away in Bali!

Tomorrow, Penny will be coming over to my house to teach me how to make my eco doll!

25 May 09
See! My eco doll, Strawberry is her name and she's a lioness. Isn't she pretty?? We made her a giant orange colored fan to match her personality and a huge juicy yummy strawberry in case it's hot and she's hungry.

Strawberry is same age as me, 6 years old. She absolutely loves strawberries and must eat them for breakfast, lunch and dinner every single day. Her favorite hobbies are playing and drawing.

"Mmmmm... slurp...yum yum" Strawberry enjoying her sweet'licious strawberry made by Esabelle's mommy, Sylvia.

Farewell Note from Esabelle

Esabelle bidding farewell to Strawberry with a note... In her note is Strawberry (on the left) and her buddy going 'BOINK' 'BOINK' BOINK'

27 May 09

"Ahhh... I really miss my best friend Esabelle, wonder what she's doing now?"
Esabelle chit chatting with nodi about her excitement and what she's going to learn in Bali
Looking outside at the other aeroplane
"We're above the clouds!" We're above the clouds!!"

Nodi fascinated with the cottony cloud. Strawberry said to Nodi, "DID YOU KNOW that clouds are made of water that comes from the earth?"
"We're landing! We're landing!!" "No, not landing into the waters, there's an airstrip below for the aeroplane to land"

28 May 09

"Bali has so much of trees and beautiful flowers. DID YOU KNOW that trees cleans up pollution in the air and makes clean fresh air for our lungs?"

"WOW, Belle, look at how green and fresh the paddy field is!"

"Hmm.. how come there's no strawberries??"

29 May 09

"Belle, look at this gorgeous lotus flower!" DID YOU KNOW that the lotus symbolizes purity, beauty, majesty, grace, fertility, wealth, richness, knowledge and serenity?

"Strawberry Jam on freshly baked bread! YUM YUM YUM"

1 June 09
"Belle! Belle! Guess where I am?!?" I'm at the GREEN SCHOOL!!!

"Look behind me! It's an organic vegetable patch... they grow their own vegetables here in the school!!"

"I met these two lovely lovely ladies on my way up... err... oh I can't remember their names..."

"Belle, meet Ben Macrory. He was our tour guide and some important person in the school I think. He spoke really really fast like a speed train it was just impossible for me to catch everything he said!... at times he's Chinese, at times he's Indonesian but most of the time he's American... I dunno, maybe he's African"

"Oh, this lady was really nice to me I really like her and I could tell she likes me a lot too!"

"I was hoping this was a strawberry plant...sigh, it's only tomato..."

"Yikes! This one looks really scary!"

"WOW, so many interesting activities! I wonder if they accept dolls in this school?"

"Belle, this is Mr Suriawan, he's the Art Teacher of Green School and a master of shadow puppetry! His company is called Me and My Shadows. Guess what!? Guess what!? He invited Penny and I to teach the kinder kids how to make dolls like me this Friday! (It has been postponed to this thursday 10 June coz they need time to collect the junk )

"Belle, meet John Hardy, John, meet my best friend Esabelle. John is the happiest and the cleverest man I've ever met. He loves Earth so much he built the Green School!

Totally exhausted and sound asleep (shh...)

5 June 09
A letter from Belle!!! What a coincidence, I just posted a postcard to Belle this afternoon telling her I miss her... SEE!

Thank you Chloe!

2009-05-20T21:19:00.000-07:00

Baby Patch was created as a thank you gift for little Chloe who drew me a thank you card after we met on Earth Day Carnival. *chirp*

Baby Patch is not just a plush but an eco angel who's on a mission to take little Chloe on an adventurous green journey. She'll be flying off latest tomorrow morning (oooo... she didn't get to leave as scheduled due to unexpected delay...) to Chloe's house to give her a giant surprise... very busy right now preparing for her trip...

Stay tuned!

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Mirabel's Notepad Design

2009-05-19T23:01:00.000-07:00

Notepad cover designed by Mirabel, 6 years old

" Mummy, i think you are mother earth because you take care of us and give us food..."

was what Mirabel said to her mommy when she got home.

Mirabel is a student of Tadika Diyana who attended the Kids Eco Activities at Ikano on Earth Day Carnival. Patch the bird said "Do you know all the yummy food and clothings come from the Earth? Earth loves and takes care of all of us like how our mommies and daddies do..."

She put two and two together and came up with her own version. I love the way kids think.

Kids Notepad Workshop | Sponsored by Vasanthe Narayanasamy

2009-05-12T01:46:00.000-07:00

A gift from Chloe

2009-05-05T17:59:00.000-07:00

A little girl from Kampung Kasih drew me this rainbow colored art piece right after the Eco Kids session at Earth Day carnival by Justlife. A gesture that could melt anyone's heart like cheese on toast. Judging from the wildness of the strokes and colors she's probably just 4 years old.

Actually she drew it for Patch the mascot but I'd still like to believe it's for me :). But why didn't she leave me her contact...a phone number, an email or an addy? Patch really wants to meet this little angel.

Little notepad workshop for kids

2009-04-29T20:36:00.000-07:00

The notepad workshop requires a collection of assorted paper junk like tissue boxes, cereal boxes, brown boxes, generally any packaging boxes of paper material plus a mega dose of creativity.

For decorations we cut out letters and patters from newspapers, mags and shopping bags.

Ribbons can be made from any soft plastic materials, rubber bands, paper bag handles etc etc etc

Kids Eco Activities

2009-04-28T06:12:00.000-07:00

Patch explaining to the kids why Earth is not feeling well and took them on an eco tour, explaining the 3Rs... Reduce. Reuse. Recycle e.g. they must use reusable lunch boxes instead of disposables takeaway boxes, use hankies instead of tissues, bring own shopping bags and say no to plastic bags, how to turn recyclables into crafting materials to make own toys. And what cannot be used must be sent to the recycling centre. Then Patch showed them the wonders of newspaper, old cloth, plastic bottles and how to make their own toys!

Unfortunately I don't have pictures of myself in the bird mascot with the kids. Here are some pix of the chinese session hosted by Wan Li.

Kids Eco Activities | Earth Day Carnival | Justlife

2009-04-24T02:17:00.000-07:00

Penne was Patch the bird educating kindie kids and pre-schoolers about Earth Day. The 500+ children between the ages of 2 1/2 - 6 years old were mainly from Tadika Diyana and King's School.

Everyday Patch amuse, teach, sing, make crafts, eat and dance with the children.

Most of the children already know what Planet Earth is. When asked, 'Do you know that Planet Earth is not feeling well?' They answered with conviction 'Planet Earth have a hole because we are throwing a lot a lot of rubbish' 'global warming!' 'my mommy save the Earth every night by switching off the lights!' 'don't cut down the trees!' 'plant more flowers!' 'pick up rubbish' 'don't throw rubbish into the waters if not all the animals will die!'...

You've no idea how excited Patch was to have met so many wonderful children who wants to love the Earth with her. We then sang a birthday song to Earth that went like this

Happy Birthday to Earth
Happy Birthday to Earth
Happy Birthday to Earth
I lo-ove the Earth.....

Free flow of little organic muffins specially baked by Mr Martin the bread artisan were then given out to the kiddies together with a delicious cup of organic blackcurrant juice.

Later, Patch and justlife's team taught the kids how to make notepads using tissue and cereal boxes as covers and assorted strings about to end up in the trash to tie the notepad together. The children decorated the covers with impressions of their love for Earth.

Kids Eco Art Workshop for Honda Save The Rhinos Roadshow | 240 kids

2008-12-16T21:39:00.000-08:00

Honda Malaysia hired my team to teach the kids how to craft with plastic bottles and shopping bags. We taught them how to make animal piggy banks and parachutes.

Our first stop was Kuantan then JB. As it was my first experience with children I was more anxious than excited. Kids used to terrify me but not anymore. Once you get to know them they're really quite adorable and not to mentioned imaginative! Good to pick their brains for design ideas!