Eco Resources

1. Living Cameras

You will need:

blindfolds

What you do:

1. In pairs, and choose one player to be the ‘camera’, and the other to be the ‘photographer’.

2. The ‘camera’ closes their eyes, or is blindfolded, and is carefully led by the photographer.

3. The ‘photographer’ positions the ‘camera’ where there is a beautiful or interesting view.

4. The ‘camera’ then takes a photograph by opening and closing their eyes. The ‘camera’ can then describe the brief flash of the picture they saw.

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Green Bingo

What you need:

pencils

green bingo sheet (see below)

What you do:

1. Talk to one other to find out who has done the different things listed on the sheet. Add their name to the relevant box.

2. After a set time, share the results of the bingo. Did anyone managed to fill all the boxes?

recycles their rubbish

often travels by bus

has helped in a litter pick

has a compost bin

has rescued an injured wild animal

can name an extinct animal

grows their own fruit or vegetables

regularly buys environmentally friendly products

has weeded a garden recently

has planted a tree

uses energy saving light bulbs at home

has ridden a bike recently

buys things from charity shops

can name an endangered animal

has a bird box in their garden

saves water in a water butt

remembers to shut the lights off when leaving the room

has visited a nature reserve

3. Passport to Planet Earth

What you need:

recycled, scrap, or home made paper

ribbon or wool

hole-punch

plain white recycled or scrap paper

stars or stamps

What you do:

Make a passport and collect stamps, or stars, for every activity you do. You can even make your own environment stamp for passport entries following the activity .

To make the cover of the passport, use coloured scrap paper or your own home made paper. The paper recipe is included in this section of the pack.

Add your groups name and logo and design your own cover for the passport. Fold this in half to make the passport cover.

Fold more recycled, scrap or home made paper in half and position it inside the cover.

Hole-punch the spine and secure the passport by tying ribbon or wool through the holes. You could staple the passport together instead.

On completing activities, you can get your passport stamped.

4 Tree faces

What you need:

mud

twigs

leaves

seeds

What you do:

Choose a tree.

Use mud, twigs, leaves, seeds and any other natural things you can find to make a face on the bark of a tree. The mud will help stick it to the tree.

Be careful not to damage the tree.

Enjoy your image before it gets washed and blown away by the rain and wind!

5 Sunflower and Chocolate cake - always wash your hands before preparing or eating food

What you need:

150g cooking chocolate,

50g cornflakes

25g ready-to-eat sunflower seeds

25g raisins

paper cases

What you do:

Melt the chocolate.

Crush the cornflakes by placing them in a bag and crushing them with a rolling pin.

Add the cornflakes, sunflower seeds and raisins to the melted chocolate and mix well.

Place a spoonful of the mixture into paper cases and leave to cool.

Enjoy!

Why not sell these to friends and family as a group fundraiser.

Fascinating fact:

“Sunflower stems were used to fill lifejackets before modern materials were invented.”

6 The Bean Game

Beans

What you do:

Create a list of different types of beans and think of actions to go with them.

A leader then calls out a type of bean and players must perform the matching action.

Players see how fast they can match the action to the type of bean called out!

Here are some suggestions:

French - shout ‘ooh la la!’

Broad – spread arms and legs to make your body as wide as possible.

Runner - run on the spot

Beans on toast - sit down and huddle together

Jumping - jump up and down

Chilli - shiver

Baked – pretend you feel hot

Black eye - hold your eye

Kidney - hold your back

Fascinating fact:

“Termites create the most amount of flatulence.”

7. Weeding Fun

What you do:

Find out from Age Concern in your area if you can help to weed some elderly people’s gardens or help out in a care home.

This is a great way of getting to know older people in your community and also getting to know more about gardening.

8 Rainbow Collections

What you need:

piece of card

double sided sticky tape

What you do:

Cut a piece of card about 15cm x 10 cm. Attach two strips of double-sided tape.

Collect natural items that match the colours of the rainbow.

Collect only things that have grown in the area but are already detached from their plant or tree, but not rubbish!

Make a display of what you can find locally.

Fascinating fact:

“Earth is referred to as the Blue Planet. Why? Because from space, the oceans combined with our atmosphere make our planet look blue!”

9. Leaf and Bark Rubbing

What you need:

paper

wax crayon or pencil

What you do:

Find an interesting leaf or a tree with interesting bark.

Place the leaf on a hard surface and place a piece of paper over it, or place a piece of paper on a tree trunk, and rub over the paper with the wax crayon.

Create a collage of a tree, plant or animal from all the individual rubbings.

Fascinating fact:

“The amount of wood and paper we throw away is enough to heat 50 million homes for 20 years.”

Use only flowers, leaves, and seeds that have fallen from trees, or pick a few from your garden. Do not take plants from private land, parks, or nature reserves

Crazy Creatures

What you need:

paper cut into wide strips

pencils

What you do:

Sit in a circle around a table.

Take a strip of paper each and at the top of the paper draw your chosen animal’s head and neck only. Make sure your neighbours can’t see what you’ve drawn.

Fold the paper over so that it just hides the head and neck, then pass it to your neighbour on the right.

Now draw the trunk (body) of your chosen animal, folding the paper again so that it just hides the body you have drawn and pass to your right again.

Next draw legs then fold and pass, then draw the feet.

When you have all finished, unfold the paper strips to discover what crazy creatures you have created.

Give them names and create stories about them

Think about the crazy creatures that do exist and how we protect them. There are some odd ones out there.

Fascinating fact:

“Flamingos can eat only with their heads upside down.”

11. Bird Feeders

What you need:

yoghurt pots or half coconut shells

shredded suet

shelled (not salted) and chopped peanuts

raisins or other dried fruit - chopped if large

bird seed, rabbit oats, etc

breadcrumbs

melted fat - preferably dripping but solid vegetable fat will do

What you do:

Make small holes in the yoghurt pots and thread some string to make a loop to hang the feeder up.
Mix all the dry ingredients together in a large bowl.
Melt the fat or dripping.
Slowly pour in the melted fat so that the mixture is soft and all the liquid is absorbed. If necessary, add more bread to soak up excess fat.
Fill the empty yoghurt pots or halved coconut shells.
Place in the fridge to set.

Use your ‘bird cake’ on bird tables, in bird feeders, or hang up the coconut shells or yoghurt pots where the birds can be safe from cats etc

Fascinating fact:

“Baby robins eat 14 feet of earthworms every day!”