Chipper Recycle Craft + Activity: Nature Journal

Chipper playfully teaches Earth and Space Science, Creative Arts and Fine Motor Skills.Create your own special nature journal with recycled materials that can both help save the environment and embrace the beauty of nature!

Collect Your Materials

Explore and Collect materials like:

• Recycled paper (Paper bags, used computer paper, light colored newspaper, light colored magazine pages, etc.)
• Cereal Box or any recycled cardboard box
• Hole puncher
• String and yarn
• Paint, markers, crayons, colored pencils
• Leaves, petals, seeds, and sticks

Chippers Tips:

• During your outdoor adventures, help your child engage their five senses to evaluate what they see, smell, taste, hear, and feel. When they find something that peaks their curiosity, ask questions and peak their interest in drawing or writing it in their journal.
• Ideas to inspire creativity – cloud chasing or finding characters in clouds, bird watching, evaluating insects, making silly faces with friends, eating a piece of fruit and finding various types of leaves!
• Tell your child to, “Play but don’t stray!” when they are exploring and to “Keep your tail on the trail!”

Make your journal.

Making your Nature Journal: 

1. For cover: Decide on the size of your journal and trace and cut out from your cereal box or every day box. You can use either side of the box to face out.
2. Decorate the cover using collected and coloring materials.
3. Journal pages: cut the paper bags or found papers to just within the size of the cover.
4. With adult help use a hole puncher to make 3-5 holes lined up on the front and back cover. Do the same with the inside journal pages.
5. Weave the yarn/string to connect the journal and tie a bow at the top or bottom to secure the bindry.
6. Time for creating! Encourage story telling through pictures and images, words, and found materials all celebrating nature or daily experiences. Make it a weekly activity to explore the outdoors and then add to your nature journal!
   

   Explore and record!

Let’s Go Chipper into the Great Outdoors!

Chipper Recycled Crafts: Toilet Roll Bunny

Celebrate Easter and Earth Day with this cute recycle bunny craft! For many of us, Easter is the Christian holiday celebrating the resurrection of Jesus Christ on the third day after his crucifixion. For others, this time of Spring celebrates the Jewish holiday of Passover. However, for those who aren’t religious, Easter is followed with the tradition of coloring hard-boiled eggs and giving baskets of candy.

This tradition of bunnies, eggs and candy go back to the holiday’s root purpose: procreation! Easter was originally the celebration of Ishtar, the ancient Assyrian and Babylonian goddess of fertility. Her symbols (like the egg and the bunny) were and still are fertility and sex symbols. After Roman Emperor Constantine decided to Christianize the Empire, Easter was changed to represent the rebirth Jesus as well as the spring season of birth and growth. Who knew!

Have some fun with your kids creating this colorful and playful bunny from a recycled toilet roll. Create a habitat for the bunny with other recycled material and let your children’s imaginations roam or take it outside and explore nature with your recycle craft bunny!

Supplies:

• Recycled Toilet Roll
• Paper (Chipper used red and white but choose any two colors or use paint!)
• Markers
• Pompoms
• Scissors
• Glue
• Googly Eyes

Directions:

• Cut two long skinny bunny ears out in the same color and cut two more smaller ones out in a different color. Glue the smaller ones inside of the larger ones to create bunny ears.
• Cover the roll with paper your used for larger ears, cut with scissors to fit and tape or glue to attach to toilet roll. Or paint it whatever color you like!
• Glue the ears to the inside of the toilet paper roll with smaller ears facing forward. 
• Glue on googly eyes and small pompoms for nose and tail. Add any other decorations that you can think of!
• Draw on whiskers with marker or pen. Try adding a smiling bunny face too!
• Place your bunny somewhere around the house or classroom OR go outside and hop around!

Make it a teachable moment! Check out these fun facts about bunnies and share with your little ones. Have a Chipper Easter! 🙂

Chipper Recycled Crafts for Kids: Paper Plate Christmas Decorations

The Holiday Season is officially up and running! From Christmas feasts and family gatherings, to buying gifts and decorating the house, things can get a little hectic! Instead of focusing on the frenzy of it all, try to enjoy each moment as it comes and let the little things go …”It’s the most wonderful time of the year” after all!

Here are a few Chipper Tips as you approach the holidays: playful yet disciplined to help create boundaries for yourself and those around you.
1. It’s not “No” it’s “not Now” – Don’t give in to yourself or your child as it pertains to food, activities, or purchases. Set up a goal-oriented mindset. Establish the goal, write it down, work for it, and then reward. It becomes a game and everyone can celebrate the win – be it a sweet, ski outing, or outfit/toy. Do this together with your child so they understand that there are things that you want and may get, but some you need to work for as well. Check out our cute Chipper Plush for an adorable stocking stuffer that will delight your child and teach a daily “positive mindset” exercise!
2. I’m Chipper for… – We all say “I’m thankful” at Thanksgiving then most of us shop like crazy the day after and quickly forget the real reason for the season! This year, fill in the blank “I’m Chipper for ____” everyday with yourself or child. Research shows by focusing on what makes you happy you can improve your physical and mental health. The Mayo Clinic offers extensive research on the matter – but just try it for yourself. Identify something immediately in front of you to be happy about – I’m Chipper for skipping, bumping into an old friend, the penny I found, or the sunshine coming through the clouds. You can change your mindset and the effect is longer-lasting. Find full instructions here!
3. Being prepared – How many times have you said “you wish you would have been better prepared”? Adopt this exercise – get what you need done out of your head, off of your iPhone, and on to a pad that sits right with your keys or someplace accessible. Is it dry cleaning for you? Snack pack for your child? Whatever it is, just write it down and put it in a place where you can see it immediately. Sound familiar? Maybe something you saw your own parent do when you were a child? It works. Get it out of your head and onto paper so you can just get it done! Read about the benefits of writing things down here.

Teach your little ones about Recycling and taking care of our planet with these cute and eco-friendly Christmas Crafts! Learn how to make your Home Made Christmas Tree Ornaments from Recycled Cards here!

Fill your paper plate with buttons, sequins, glitter, yarn, pasta noodles, or even dried Fall leaves and make a Paper Plate Christmas Wreath. Here’s what you need to get started:

1. Paper Plate
2. Scissors
3. Glue
4. Ribbon or String to hang
5. Decorations: Red & Green Construction Paper, Glitter, noodles, paint, markers or crayons, buttons, or whatever tickles your fancy!

How to make it: 

1. Cut a hole in the center of your plate using the ridged edge as your guide. Don’t throw the scraps away! Cut into little circles and leaves and color with a red and green markers then glue together for little Mistletoes!
2. Poke a small hole into the edge of your plate. String through a piece of ribbon or yarn and tie in a circle. This will be the “top” of your wreath and what you’ll use to hang it up once your done.
3. Decide on your decorations: Color your plate with markers, mistletoe or glue on some buttons and painted noodles. Chipper loves glitter even though it can get a little messy (HINT: use another paper plate to decorate on to keep the mess to a minimum!) Sky’s the limit with how you decorate. There is no right or wrong way and allowing your child to decide for themselves how to decorate lets them to use their imagination and practice their problem solving skills. Here are a few example ideas:

4. Now go hang it up! Whether on your door, tree, or refrigerator, these make for fun decorations made with love by your tot.

Stray away from tradition and get real creative with an Adorable Snow Girl (or boy!).

What you need:

1. Paper Plate
2. Scissors
3. Glue
4. Ribbon or yarn
5. Construction Paper/Cardboard or colored recycled paper
6. Googly Eyes
7. Markers

How to make it: 

1. Start with your face on the bottom of your paper plate: Add googly eyes with glue or draw on a face with markers. Cut out a triangle nose from construction paper/cardboard/recycled paper.
2. Then make your hat: Trace your shape on cardboard or paper and cut out carefully. Add a cute flower or other decoration to the hat if desired using paper. Then glue (or double stick tape!) your hat onto the plate.
3. Add hair: Cut 1″ think strips of paper and fold back and forth for a bit of crinkle. Attach to your hat with glue or tape.
4. Lastly, add your scarf: Tie a piece of string or yarn into a bow and glue on. Voila! Cute little snow girl makes an adorable decoration for the house this Holiday Season.

Have a Chipper Holiday! Tell us about your crafts and ideas this Christmas 🙂 Check out these 7 Recycled Christmas Crafts for Kids!

Chipper Snack: Ultimate Picnic Sandwich Recipe

“Bread and butter, devoid of charm in the drawing room, is ambrosia eaten under a tree.” ~Elizabeth von Arnim

Summer time is here! Enjoy the shinning sun by taking a outdoor picnic with the family. Picnics are a great way to connect with your dad on Father’s Day or just enjoy an ordinary Summer day with your little ones. Take a solo hike and find a knoll to spread your blanket. Relax with a book or just soak in the nature around you. It will do your mind, body and soul so much good!

Picnic Sandwich

Pack this big, wonderful sandwich into a basket and plan a surprise picnic for your loved ones!

• Cut a large round loaf of French Brad (any shape will do) in half & scoop out bread to make a cavity in each side. Eat the extra bread or feed it to your back yard birds!
• Rub inside of each half with curt garlic clove and sprinkle with a few drops of balsamic vinegar and a generous amount of olive oil. Salt and pepper each side.
• Layer the following ingredients in the order given, more or less–feel free to add and subtract to your own tastes:
  • Start and end with slices of ripe tomatoes
  • Crumble on Montrachet cheese
  • Sliced cucumber
  • Roasted red peppers
  • Grated carrots
  • A spoonful of dressing (see recipe below)
  • Sliced hardboiled eggs
  • Grilled tuna or swordfish
  • Sprinkle on mashed anchovy
  • Sliced radishes
  • Roasted green beans*
  • Thin sliced red onion
  • Leaves of fresh basil or rosemary
  • Another spoonful of dressing
  • Finish up with more tomato slices
• Wrap the sandwich tightly and put it on a plate with a heavy object on top for at least one hour, turning once. Enjoy!

Dressing

• 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
• 1 tbsp. parsley, minced
• 2 anchovies, mashed
• 1 clove garlic, crushed
• 1 tbsp. fresh rosemary
• 1/2 cup olive oil
• 1 tbsp. Dijon mustard

Whisk together vinegar, anchovies, and mustard; add garlic, parsley and rosemary; In a thin stream, whisk olive oil.

*Green Beans

Preheat oven to 450˚. Wash and trim leaves then allow them to dry. Spread on baking sheet, drizzle lightly with olive oil and toss them to distribute oil. Grind over black pepper. Bake for 15-20 min. till soft and starting to brown. Turn occasionally then sprinkle with salt.

Chipper Tips: Keeping Your Kids Teeth Healthy

Chipper knows how important it is to get your little one to get into the habit of brushing their teeth at an early age!

Squirrels’ teeth grow very fast so they need to constantly sharpen and shorten them!  To trim their long teeth and to keep healthy, squirrels like Chipper chew on hard things like twigs. Here’s a video of a squirrel at UCLA sharpening its teeth:

Like squirrels, we need to keep our teeth healthy! We’ve all heard it from all of our dentists: “You need to floss more!” or “Don’t forget to brush the very back of your molars!” Most of us don’t worry about their warnings until the day before our next dental visit. The worst that can happen is that we get a little cavity, and, they just fix it with a silver cap, right? But, it turns out, bad dental hygiene isn’t just bad for your teeth, it’s also bad for your general health! The infographic below lists 14 bad-dental-hygiene ailments that plague everyday people just like you and me. Poor oral hygiene can lead to heart disease, respiratory disease, and even brain abscesses! Preventative medicine is the best medicine, so please, listen to your dentist and floss your teeth and brush all the way to the back of your molars! Your body will thank you!

Need a way to keep your kids’ teeth healthy? Have your kids brush their teeth to this Chipper song–to ensure that your kids brush their teeth for a long enough time and to guarantee that the experience is fun!

Let’s Go Chipper for Healthy Teeth!

Chipper Snacks: Cinco de Mayo Recipe

Happy Cinco de Mayo! For those who don’t know, Cinco de Mayo is a celebration held on the 5th of May (today!). It is celebrated in two places; the United States and Mexico. In Mexico, the day is primarily celebrated in the state of Puebla, where the holiday is called El Día de la Batalla de Puebla, or “The Day of the Battle of Puebla.” Originally, the holiday was celebrated in Mexican-American communities to remember the fight for freedom and democracy during the American Civil War. Now, the Cinco de Mayo is celebrated in the United States to honor Mexican heritage and pride. In Puebla, the holiday is observed in remembrance of the Mexican army’s victory over the French during the Battle of Puebla.

To celebrate Cinco de Mayo, here is one of Chipper‘s favorite Mexican recipes: Chicken Tortilla Soup!

Here’s what you need to make 8 servings:

1 onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 teaspoons chili powder
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 (28 ounce) can crushed tomatoes
1 (10.5 ounce) can condensed chicken broth
1 1/4 cups water
1 cup whole corn kernels, cooked
1 cup white hominy
1 (4 ounce) can chopped green chile peppers
1 (15 ounce) can black beans, rinsed and drained
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
2 boneless chicken breast halves, cooked and cut into bite-sized pieces
crushed tortilla chips
sliced avocado
shredded Monterey Jack cheese
chopped green onions

Directions:

1. First, in a medium stock pot, heat oil over medium heat. Saute onion and garlic in oil until soft. Stir in chili powder, oregano, tomatoes, broth, and water. Bring to a boil, and simmer for 5 to 10 minutes.

2. Stir in corn, hominy, chiles, beans, cilantro, and chicken. Simmer for 10 minutes.

3. Ladle soup into individual serving bowls, and top with crushed tortilla chips, avocado slices, cheese, and chopped green onion.

Enjoy!

Did you know that chicken is a very good source of protein? A serving of 4 ounces of chicken provides 67.6% of the daily value for protein.  In addition, the leanest part of a chicken is the chicken breast, which is half the fat of a trimmed Choice grade T-bone steak. However, eating the chicken with the skin doubles the amount of fat you consume. So, if you’re trying to cut down on fat, cut the skin! Chicken is also an excellent source of niacin, which is a cancer-protective vitamin. Read more about chicken and its health benefits here!

Let’s Go Chipper for Cinco de Mayo and healthy eating!

Chipper Recycle Craft: Saint Patrick’s Day Leprechaun

Happy Saint Patrick’s Day! Celebrated as a recognition of the Irish and Irish culture in America, Saint Patrick’s Day is observed through the prominent wearing of the color green, parades, fun, and religious observance! Saint Patrick was a Romano-British Christian missionary and bishop in Ireland. For those who religiously observe St. Patrick’s Day, they attend mass to thank God for their patron saint.

In honor of Saint Patrick’s Day, connect with your children to make a fun paper plate leprechaun this week! A leprechaun is a type of fairy in Irish folklore, usually depicted as a little old man, wearing a coat and hat, who partakes in mischief and magic! Made out of simple materials you can find around your house, this craft is the perfect low-maintenance activity for you and your little one.

What you need:

To make this cute paper plate leprechaun, first take a sheet of green construction paper and cut out a top-hat shape. The size of the hat will vary depending on the size of your plate.

Secondly, cut out a strip of black construction paper and an empty yellow square and glue (or tape!) them on to the hat. These will be the embellishments on the hat.

Next, take your red construction paper and cut out 1mm wide strips. 

Next, glue the red strips on the outside perimeter of the paper plate like so:

With a marker or chopstick, roll each strip from the outward most point to the plate. Your goal is to curl the red strips so that it becomes a fun beard for the leprechaun!

Glue the hat onto the plate. 

Using markers (or crayons or colored pencils) draw on a face!

You’re in Luck! Now you have an easy, fun, and cute decoration for St. Patrick’s Day! Try hanging it in your little one’s room in celebration of this holiday or let them wear it to school and teach their friends about the magic of leprechauns.

Now, what will you make this happy leprechaun for dinner? Irish Stew? Share a lucky moment with us on Facebook.

Benefits of Laughing with Chipper’s Caption Contest!

“Your sense of humor is one of the most powerful tools you have to make certain that your daily mood and emotional state support good health.”

– Paul E. McGhee, Ph.D.

Almost 50,000,000 views of this video!!!

We all love to laugh–it’s literally good for us! Humor is infectious. The sound of roaring laughter is far more contagious than any cough, sniffle, or sneeze. When laughter is shared, it binds people together and increases happiness and intimacy. Laughter also triggers healthy physical changes in the body. Humor and laughter strengthen your immune system, boost your energy, diminish pain, and protect you from the damaging effects of stress. Best of all, this priceless medicine is fun, free, and easy to use!

One of the best ways to get a few laughs online are caption contests! Chipper loves to post photos on his Facebook Page and ask people to come up with some captions in the comment section so we decided to put together a Caption Contest! Please check out our photo (as seen below) and enter your best caption for a chance to win a powerful LED Flashlight, just in time for Fall and its longer nights!

Captions???

We will also use the winning entry to make a funny meme post in the following weeks after the contest ends to get you folks laughing! Laughter is a powerful antidote to stress, pain, and conflict. Nothing works faster or more dependably to bring your mind and body back into balance than a good laugh. Humor lightens your burdens, inspires hopes, connects you to others, and keeps you grounded, focused, and alert. Let’s Go Chipper and Start laughing today!

21st Century Learning with Chipper!

Education and learning, either at school or at home,  should be fun and Chipper’s Eco-educational series is all about nature-inspired, play-based learning! With books, music, and DVDs, Chipper entertains while also inspiring social responsibility. Every child born in the twenty-first century will experience a bombardment of information and new technologies as they are developing and it’s important to harness these influences in ways that will impact your child positively! Since you can’t shield them from the world, as much as you’d like to sometimes, it’s never too early to start preparing their minds and bodies to become responsible, considerate human-beings.

According to research conducted by Jill Stamm, Ph.D, Co-founder of New Directions Institute for Infant Brain Development, “attention is the very foundation of learning” (Bright from the Start: The Simple, Science-based way to Nurture Your Child’s Developing Mind from Birth to Age 3). With the huge increase of doctors diagnosing ADHD and what award-winning author of Last Child in the Woods, Richard Louve, calls “Nature Deficit Disorder,” kids attention seems harder and harder to focus in order to learn. That’s why teachers and parents need to update and evolve old practices of learning and teaching to keep up with the future generations extremely short and divided attention spans! We can do this with interactive learning that takes kids outdoors to explore and also brings nature inside, with crafts, activities and digital media provided by Chipper!

Research suggests that exposure to the natural world – including nearby nature in cities – helps improve human health, well-being, and intellectual capacity in ways that science is only recently beginning to understand. Chipper’s interactive mobile Apps are inspired by nature and help your children become confident, independent learners who will develop a strong sense of self worth, enabling them to make positive life choices. They will also learn to cherish our planet and protect its environment, something we desperately need for a brighter future.

Each app correlates to the various books in our series, with coloring pages, fun videos to watch, sing-a-long songs, and matching-memory games! Learn about Bruce the Banana Slug and his work decomposing plant waste in order to help plants grow or Sally the Salmon that travels up-stream to provide us with a food source and keep the rivers fragile ecosystems in balance. Great for all-ages and fulfilling various classroom curriculum, the Let’s Go Chipper series connects to the real world in a virtual age and connect kids and their families with environment. Give your child or the children you teach a jump-start for the future and Go Chipper into the Great Outdoors today!

Chipper for Nature: Photo Contest!

We love getting Chipper in nature and we would love to see you and your little one’s getting Chipper in nature too! Photography is a wonderfully fun way to get you and your kids excited about the great outdoors. It’s also a great creative outlet that will make you see the world in a whole new light! Please share your best picture of you and/or the family getting Chipper in Nature on our Facebook Photo Contest Tab.

One photo entry per person please and captions are encouraged. Let’s Go Chipper’s Facebook fans will be the judges, so leaving a title or caption with your photo will definitely better your chances of winning. Once you upload your photo, don’t forget to vote for the best looking picture (even if it’s your own!) The picture with the most votes next week will win Chipper’s Ultimate Day trip Backpack, filled with tons of fun Chipper gear, like a water proof picnic blanket, an active water canteen, and a Chipper travel pillow!

Start getting Chipper in Nature today and click away!