A Beautiful Planet IMAX film at the Ontario Science Centre

Nighttime view of Spain and the Mediterranean as seen in the new IMAX® film, A Beautiful Planet. © 2016 IMAX Corporation. Photo courtesy of NASA.

Entertainment's space epic A Beautiful Planet made in cooperation with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) opens on April 29 at IMAX® Ontario Science Centre. We enjoyed watching a preview of this amazing film. I love how the film portrays the beauty of Earth - how unique and far beyond our imagination everything is, which is not possible by anyone but God. Watching this film made us appreciate the beauty of Earth more, and think about the changes we can make in our own lifestyle to preserve the beauty of Earth. 

Books For Children

Having fun, educational, colourful books in our home library is important to me because these encourage my children to explore topics and find their interests. My children enjoyed these books that open up lots of conversations, and teach them lessons, as well as general knowledge information such as about our environment. The colourful illustrations encourage children to be engaged and read it many times. I like that it awakens their natural curiosity to explore, and learn.

Earth Related Eye-Opening Programs on Netflix

Earth Month is the perfect time to reflect, appreciate, and educate our selves on all that our planet offers. My family and I like watching documentaries together because it’s a great way to start important conversations. The above is a picture of a diorama my daughter made using recycled materials to show how Sri Lankan elephants are being impacted due to deforestation. The project was completed under candlelight when we were observing earth hour last weekend. 

Some suggestions of shows that the family can watch and learn from:

Green products are better for us and the environment

Happy Earth Day to all of you. Today many of us are thinking global and green. With this thought, I think we need to make lifestyle changes and use greener products, which are better for the environment and us.

Mystery of Life: Our survival depends on flowers

Before watching the Disneynature Wings of Life I thought the movie was about butterflies.  However, while watching the movie I realized it is called “Wings of life” because it outlines the importance of pollinators such as beetles, insects, bees, hummingbirds and bats that carry the pollen grains to other plants, so the plants can reproduce. I recommend this heartwarming movie for the whole family, as it points out the importance of flowers. This DVD and Blu-ray combo will be available on April 16th.

I also read the book Rainforest by Thomas Marent, which is filled with beautiful close-up photographs of the rare beauties found in the exciting, but dangerous tropical rainforests.  The pictures are amazing, which shows us the uniqueness and the beautiful details found in nature if we just stop to look at it.  

Our Birdterfly Soap Dispenser and Contest to promote hand washing

As parents, we always have debates with our children about washing their hands properly. This contest by Lysol No-Touch Hand Soap is a cool way to encourage and engage our children to make a healthy habit of washing hands before eating. I believe when children become a part of something and get involved they value things a little more. So I really enjoyed designing our unique Lysol No-Touch Hand Soap Dispenser and happily displayed it by our kitchen sink.  

To decorate our bird-butterfly dispenser, also known as Birdterfly we needed...

Lysol No-Touch Hand Soap Dispenser

craft foam sheet

scissor

2 beads for the eye

2 craft metal wires for the antenna/ear

red duct tape for the beak

1 craft bird feather

a piece of silly band for the worm 

a piece of thick wool

markers and acrylic paint to decorate

a piece of women's stockings

glue gun

First cut a piece of the women's stockings to fit over the Lysol No-Touch Hand Soap Dispenser.  This way we can operate the on/off button behind the container and change the refill without damaging our crafty piece.  

I also put a hole so the liquid can come out. Since the stocking is very light the sensors work we didn't have to put holes in those areas. We used a glue gun to attach the metal wires over the stocking then placed the beads.  

Then we secured the top portion by tying a thick wool and covering the written area that was visible.  

My husband suggested we put a mohawk feather like a Cardinal on top to camouflage the stockings.  

We cut a piece of red duct tape and attached it over the dispenser piece that was sticking out to make it resemble a beak. My daughter suggested that we put a piece of silly band to make it look like the bird is having a meal. We placed the tape over the stocking and secured it with the glue gun.

For the bottom part of the dispenser we cut a craft foam piece and made sure to make two holes so the sensors work, then decorated it using markers and paint.  

Everyone took a turn to colour and paint before we put glue to the middle section of foam and attached it to the dispenser.     

Here are some tips...

First plan so everyone is in the same page :) We started off wanting to make a squirrel, then thought a bird would be better but also wanted to include our butterfly idea. So we combined all our ideas to make this Birdterfly.

Get all your materials ready and see if they work.

Remember to not cover the sensor after all we want the No-Touch Hand Soap Dispenser to work.

Lysol Hand Soap Contest

You can be part of this initiative and get your crafty children involved by joining the Lysol contest starting March 11th.  

Decorate and share the pictures of your crafty creatures and enter for a chance to win a mini-tablet daily. Here are the contest rules and regulations, don't forget to read them before you start your project :)

Disclosure: I am participating in the Kid Who Touches Everything blog tour by MC Canada on behalf of Lysol.  As a thank you I received compensation for sharing my opinion.  All rights reserved on photographs and written content Createwithmom © 2011 - 2013. Please Ask First