Allison Savicz of the Museum of Life and Science offers a little information about recycling and a craft to get your kids involved. It's just in time for the museum's new exibit Holiday Springs and Sprockets.

The first step in teaching your children about recycling is explaining why we should recycle. Teach your children that the earth is their home, and that it tdeserves their care and respect. Also, teach your child that there is a strong interconnectedness and interdependence between humans and the environment and that their daily actions can affect the earth in positive or negative ways.

It is important to identify the three R’s for your kids so they can distinguish three key ways to reduce their impact on the environment.

Reduce by cutting back on the amount of waste used in everyday life. For example, reduce waste by teaching kids to use canvas bags at the grocery store instead of plastic bags.

Reuse an existing item in your household in order to minimize waste. For example, reuse gift bags to cut down on paper waste or decorate cans or jars with stickers or glitter to create a unique pencil holder.

Recycle when an object can be shredded, melted or processed to create new raw materials. An aluminum can is used to create more cans while paper and cardboard can be recycled in order to generate more paper products

Take a trip to your recycle bin and throwaway materials. You can find the beginnings of musical instruments from flower pots, gargoyles from coffee trays and relief carvings from drywall. The more fun projects you can make out of unwanted trash, the more you can dream up.

And to get even more inspired to reuse and recycle, come see the large scale recycled sculptures at the Museum of Life and Science’s newest exhibit for all ages, Holiday Springs and Sprockets by New York artist Steve Gerberich who creates contemporary, mechanical sculpture from a pack rat's treasure trove of tag sale bargains, machine bits, plastic recyclables and obsolete furniture. On view Nov. 15 through Jan. 5.

For more information about Holiday Springs and Sprockets: www.lifeandscience.org or www.gerbomatic.com.

RECYCLING CRAFTS FOR KIDS: CUTLERY WIND CHIMES

Lesson written by: KinderArt

Items to Recycle: (Plastic Cutlery and Paper Plates)

What You Need:

To create wind chimes, simply gather:

some plastic cutlery, paper plate, sharp pencil, pair of scissors, some string or yarn

What You Do:

First, cut the string into lengths from 4" to 6". Then, tie the string to the ends of the cutlery. Next poke some holes into the paper plate, thread the string through and tie a knot in each piece. Finally, fasten three pieces of string to the top of the plate.

Optional: decorate the paper plate with crayons, paint, markers or paper.

Staffers from the Museum of Life and Science in Durham write for TriangleMom2Mom once a month.

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