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Use “Green Bucks”
For older children, the concept of “Green Bucks” helps teach them about two types of green: money and the environment. Similar to an allowance, Green Bucks are given to kids as a reward, but instead of being used on the latest toy, they represent a set amount of money that is donated in their name to an environmentally-friendly charity of their choice.
My Place
Planet Green has a series of short animations with great messages about going green called My Place. They are silly, effective, and fun to watch! www.planetgreen.discovery.com/videos/my-place
Easy Going Green
We all want to “Go Green” but many adults don’t know where to start. Easy Going Green is an interactive deck of 52 flash cards created to help teachers and parents instruct children about respecting the environment. Designed with the young child in mind, Easy Going Green gives simple and practical steps that children and families can take to protect the environment. $19.95, www.easygoinggreenkids.com
Green Reads for Kids
Earl the Earthworm Digs for His Life teaches us about the amazing work of worms and how we can use them to create compost from our organic waste.
Garbology Kids
Out of sight, out of mind. A national recycling rate that hovers around 33 percent proves that many U.S. consumers are familiar with this trash-tossing attitude.
Sabbithry Persad’s new book Garbology Kids, is the first in a series of five books that will educate children on where waste goes once it’s tossed.
Persad believes that if kids learn more about recycling and waste management at an early age, they can take the knowledge with them into their adult lives, and it will become as automatic as getting in their hybrid or electric car, fastening their seat belt, and brushing their teeth. www.garbologykids.com/
Lick Global Warming
Every kid loves ice cream and the kings of flavor, Ben & Jerry, have created a colorful, animated website that gives kids an easy way to understand climate change and global warming. There are colorful maps, games, and educational information to teach kids how to be green and environmentally friendly. http://www.lickglobalwarming.org
Count Your Pennies
Pennies for the Planet is a successful nationwide campaign to help critical conservation projects. It’s powered by kids collecting pennies (and nickels, dimes, quarters, and dollars, too!) to help save wild places and wildlife in the United States. Working in groups and troops of all sorts, in school classrooms, with their families, and on their own, kids have turned pennies into a gold mine for wild spaces and wildlife in need of protection. www.togethergreen.org