Earth Day Art Map and Arbor Day Book

How will you be celebrating Earth Day on April 22nd, and Arbor Day on April 27th?

Since I'm moving on Earth Day, I decided to celebrate a little early. I collaged this map, and wrote a couple of my favorite author's sentiments about Earth onto it.

Here's a simple how-to:

1)  Tear scrap paper into a variety of strips. 

2) Brush a thin, even layer of mod podge onto the cardboard rectangle, in sections, and quickly form continents and oceans with blank strips.

While I did that, Baby A 'painted" (brushed water onto her own scrap paper).

3) Write the quote(s) on the map.

I wrote my quotes across like a banner, but it would also be fun to write the words onto strips and paste them on for a patched look. I wish I had written them larger, in a more interesting color.

4) Gloss the entire map with the mod podge. 

 
The quotes I used:
"All things of the universe are miracles, each as profound as any."
-Walt Whitman

"Earth laughs in flowers."
-Ralph Waldo Emerson

For Arbor Day, I recommend reading Grandpa Green by Lane Smith. Grandpa Green artistically carves out his life legacy. This might be my favorite Lane Smith book, though as a child I pouted and cried in the car until my parents went back into the book fair and purchased The Stinky Cheese Man for me. (I still feel guilty; it was totally uncharacteristic for me to whine like that, and for my parents to give in like that.) I won't throw a fit for Grandpa Green, but I will add it to my pretty-pretty-please-it's-almost-my-birthday list.

Don't you think that planting, saving, or appreciating a tree is one of the best ways we can build a legacy for our future generations?

P.S. more springtime and Earth Day books

P.P.S. Does your library read for the Earth?