Eco Friendly Birthday Party for 7 year old girl?

Question

I am in the preliminary planning stages for my 7 year old daughter's birthday party. She is very environmentally conscious, very aware of the less fortunate in our population, and I would like to build on that. Does anyone know of any great ways to share her enthusiasm for these important issues and incorporate them into a birthday theme? I am looking for something that the kids can bring instead of gifts, like the Christmas shoeboxes that some churches send overseas... Something that would not be expensive for families to take part in, but would be at a level that a group of seven year olds would understand and appreciate the value of their contribution.

Any and all suggestions are most welcome, thank you everyone for your time!

Answer 1

You could:

- not use disposable plates/napkins,

- encourage guests to bring something to donate (food for a local food shelf, toys for a toy drive, or your idea of the shoeboxes) rather than a gift and if they choose to wrap something, use reuseable wrapping paper such as newspaper or cloth

- as an activity plant seeds for children to take home and grow into flowers or vegetables

- call your local United Way and see if there are any age-appropriate volunteer activities available for this group, such as yard work for an elderly or disabled person, serving food at a family shelter, cleaning up a park or community garden

Answer 2

Get her a birthday cake or cupcakes with flowers or trees on it. And get some Veggie pizza. It could have a green or Earth theme. Maybe you could let the girls pick some flowers and make little wreaths or headbands. And for the boys let them make natural clay sculptures.

Answer 3

hmm maybe have the girls volunteer at the food bank (i know the sanfransisco one does things along those lines

Answer 4

Check into local volunteer activities. If there is a habitat for humanity house nearby, maybe the children could help paint.

Volunteer at an animal shelter. Take the dogs for walks, brush them, etc.

Have the party at the local park. Encourage the children to clean up the park (bring trash bags!!) before they play.

Have a recycle party. Have guests bring items for the kids to turn into crafts.

You're idea of Christmas boxes are great. What about boxes for the school's Kindergarten round up? Welcome packs for next years students.

Good luck and have fun!

Answer 5

make a craft project from recyclables.  teach the kids how to make paper from recycled items.  

If you have a small pool, you could put some water in it and other things you would find naturally in a pond or stream then also put in things that would be hazardous to the inviroment and have the kids dip them out using a net.

put a bunch of  stuff on a tray,  let the kids look at the tray for a schort period of time and then  ask them to write down the things that they saw that could be recycled.  

You could also set up boxes,  devide the children into groups

scatter stuff in the yard and see which group gets the most in the propper containers.  one for glass,   plastic,  you get the point.

You could let them plant a flower to take home,

As far as something to bring you could have each child bring one non parishable food item  to be donated to  the local food pantry.

You could also have them bring in good conditiond clothing items that are two small for them to be donated.  It keeps them out of the land fill and helps those less fortunate.

You could also have them all bring in a empty cereal box and teach them how to recycle it into a book box or something to hold those stupid plastic bags you get from the store until they can be reused.  many people throw them away because they get all over.  

things you could use for a goodie bag would be seeds,   home made playdough,  nuts, fruit,  a pin to remind them to be enviromentally responsible,  a list of local recycleing centers in the area, and treats made from scratch you could also allow the kids to help prepare them.  This could also be used as a teaching method,  devide them into two groups,

and have one group bake items from scratch such as cookies and and cake or candies,   Then have the second group prepare  the same thing using boxed products and see which group makes less trash.  

  

Another way to show them how much trash  families  make is by useing boxed food, is to contact the parents, a few days before the party and have them save all the boxes and send them with their child  place them all in a pile  hopefully it wont be that big of a pile, but you would be surprised.  It is  a real eye opener.  you could also let the parents join you and educate both child and parents.

Answer 6

how about if each kid brought a can of organic food...then you could donate them to a local food drive..the operation christmas child boxes were a good idea too but christmas is really far away..good luck deciding