Earth Day Party
By Gayle J. Thorn ~ Illustrated by Nancy S. Holliday

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Invitations
For each invitation, cut a triangle 4 inches long on each side from plain brown grocery-bag paper. Round the corners. On one side of each triangle, draw the three-arrow recycling symbol and print the words You're invited . . .

On the back, write . . . to an Earth Day Party! Then include the date, time, and place.

Decorations
Place indoor plants around the room. They will "green up" the party area—and do their own recycling work by adding oxygen to the air.

One of many slogans at the first Earth Day celebration, in 1970, was "Give Earth a Chance." Create a poster with this saying or a slogan of your own. Decorate it with scenic cutouts from magazines.

Make paper lanterns from colorful newspaper. Cut rectangles from the paper. Fold each one in half lengthwise. Cut slits, parallel to each other and spaced about an inch apart, along the folded side. Stop cutting slits about an inch from the other side, as shown.

Unfold the paper, and tape the short ends together. Make a handle by taping a strip of news-paper to the top of the lantern. Hang lanterns from a paper chain or yarn strung across the room.

For other recycling touches, tie stacks of old magazines with twine and place them around the room as seats. Make a wreath from a brown paper bag by cutting open the bag, rolling it into a tube, twisting the tube, and taping the ends together with masking tape. Decorate it with pictures of flowers cut from magazines or with packets of seeds glued or tied in place. Add a bow made from a scrap of fabric. You can also make loop chains from colored newspaper, and drape them around the room.

Games
Recycle Hunt
Before the party, cut 2-inch triangles from paper bags or newspapers. You will need nine triangles per student. Draw the three-arrow recycling symbol on each triangle. Then write the letters R-E-C-Y-C-L-E M-E, one letter on each triangle. Make a set of RECYCLE ME pieces for each student. Tape each letter to a different recyclable plastic jar, can (with no jagged edges), rolled up newspaper, and so on. (Don't use anything breakable, since you'll be tossing the items in the Toss Across game.) Hide the items around the room.

During the party, give each student a large paper bag or box. Tell students they are to spell out RECYCLE ME, and have them hunt for the items. The first student to find the letters to spell RECYCLE ME wins a prize.

Toss Across
Set empty cardboard boxes next to each other. You will need as many containers as you have different items in the students’ Recycle Hunt bags. (For instance, if you used only plastic bottles and aluminum cans in that game, you would need just two boxes.) Label the boxes.

Have students stand a certain distance from the boxes, behind a mark on the floor (perhaps a yardstick or rolled-up towel). From behind the mark, students take turns tossing the items from their bags into the boxes. For each item they toss into the correct box, they get a point. Keep score on each student’s bag with a marker. The winner is the student with the highest score.

Juice-Box-Tower Race
Divide your students into two teams. Give each team ten empty juice boxes (or use other stackable recyclable items, such as plastic margarine tubs with lids). When you say go, the first student in each line stacks the boxes one at a time into a tower, then takes down the tower one box at a time. If the tower falls over before that student has finished, he or she starts over again. The second student in each line repeats the actions, and so on down the line. The team that finishes first wins. Give each member of the winning team a recycle pin.

To make recycle pins, use a permanent marker to draw the recycle symbol on plastic-foam trays or margarine tub lids. Write "#1 Recycler" inside them. Cut them out. Sew safety pins to the back of old buttons. Glue a recycle symbol to the front of each button.

Favors and Refreshments
For favors, set a single bedding plant, such as a marigold, at each place at the table. Or give each student a packet of seeds.

Serve fruit juice in reusable plastic cups with lids or in small sport bottles. Each student may keep the cup and take it home.

Serve animal cookies and edible "trees." To make the trees, fill flat-bottomed ice-cream cones with cubes of lime gelatin, scoops of lime sherbet, or mint chocolate-chip ice cream.

Cleanup
After the party, feed any crumbs to the birds, throw away the trash, and recycle anything you can.