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January 21, 2013

Kindness Challenge: Love the Environment

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Today is the first day of Toddler Approved’s 100 Acts of Kindness Project!  We are doing 52 Weeks of Kindness this year and are super excited to spend the next 4 weeks participating in the Kindness Project.  It’s a fantastic family activity and I was thrilled when Kristina asked me if I wanted to give the first challenge!

100 Acts of Kindness Week 1 Challenge from Coffee Cups and Crayons

Week 1 Challenge: Show some love to your environment!

This week we are challenging you to perform an act of kindness that helps the world around you.  It can be as simple as picking up litter, planting a tree, or feeding the birds!

To start things off we made simple DIY bird feeders that are shaped like a heart–a great way to show your feathered friends just how much you care!

Heart Shaped DIY Bird FeederWant to make them too?

Here’s what you need:

3/8 cup flour

1/4 cup water

1.5 T corn syrup

2 cups of birdseed

cookie cutters

plastic straw

yarn

How to Make Bird Seed Ornament Bird Feeders

Stir the first three ingredients together and then mix the birdseed in by hand.

Pack the mixture into heart shaped cookie cutters on a wax paper lined surface.

Stick small piece of plastic straw into the middle to tie a string through.

Let dry overnight.

Tie with yarn and hang from a tree or bush.

Cardboard Bird Feeders

While we were waiting for the bird treats to harden we came up with another idea…

Cardboard Bird Feeders! 

These were so easy to make we decided to share these with you too!

All we did was trace and cut out heart shapes on leftover cardboard pieces and punched a hole in the top.  Then we “painted” some with corn syrup and some with peanut butter.  We sprinkled bird seed on and hung them from a tree with yarn.  Super easy and cute!

Now it’s time to show a little love to your environment!  We can’t wait to hear about what you do this week!

Make sure to visit Toddler Approved for all of the scoop on the 100 Acts of Kindness Project and the rest of the weekly challenges!  And remember, no act is too small!

About Megan Sheakoski

Megan is the creator of Coffee Cups and Crayons, a blog full of simple fun and learning. She believes that kids’ activities don’t have to be complicated to be fun and that learning is better with play.

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Comments

  1. kristina says

    January 21, 2013 at 12:08 pm

    LOVE these bird feeders! We are so excited for this first challenge and can’t wait to see what people decide to do. We are already brainstorming our ideas.

    Reply
    • Megan Sheakoski says

      January 21, 2013 at 4:27 pm

      So did the birds! Which was pretty exciting since they have not been interested in the other treats we have left them! Already having a blast with the 100 Acts of Kindness Project! Kudos to you for starting something so wonderful!

      Reply
  2. Cerys @ Rainy Day Mum says

    January 21, 2013 at 12:26 pm

    Fantastic challenge and we’ve made bird food today as well – simple toasted circles as my youngest is obsessed with circles. We’ll do something else each day this week for the challenge.

    Reply
    • Megan Sheakoski says

      January 21, 2013 at 4:26 pm

      Did the birds eat your toast? We tried to feed ours toast on ribbons and strings of popcorn but they wouldn’t try it. They must have been waiting for some sugar…they finally went for these ones with the corn syrup and peanut butter! Excited to see what you do for the challenge!

      Reply
      • Cerys @ Rainy Day Mum says

        January 22, 2013 at 8:37 am

        I coated it with Marmite 🙂 they love them now. I’ve also put them were our normal bird feeders are and I guess because it’s a feeding station they return to it regularly

        Reply
        • Megan Sheakoski says

          January 22, 2013 at 9:55 pm

          So smart! We will be stealing that idea from now on!

          Reply
  3. Melissa says

    January 21, 2013 at 12:40 pm

    I am inspired! The bird feeders are lovely for the birds, no doubt, but the humans who get to looks at their beauty as well!

    Reply
    • Megan Sheakoski says

      January 21, 2013 at 4:29 pm

      I do love how they look too! Thanks so much Melissa!

      Reply
      • Melissa says

        January 24, 2013 at 6:47 pm

        We figured out a way to love the environment and keep track of our acts of kindness!

        Reply
        • Megan Sheakoski says

          January 24, 2013 at 7:43 pm

          I just saw your post! What a fantastic, fantastic idea!

          Reply
    • kristina says

      January 21, 2013 at 5:31 pm

      I agree Melissa! They turned out so cute Megan!

      Reply
      • Megan Sheakoski says

        January 22, 2013 at 9:57 pm

        Thanks Kristina! Your Kindness Project is just phenomenal!

        Reply
  4. Naomi Wittlin says

    January 22, 2013 at 10:46 am

    Oh, great ideas! I can hardly wait to try these.

    Reply
    • Megan Sheakoski says

      January 22, 2013 at 9:51 pm

      Thanks Naomi! I just checked out your site and love the paper bag project you participated in! Thanks for stopping by!

      Reply
  5. dawn says

    January 22, 2013 at 1:30 pm

    funny how this weeks acts of kindness is for our environment. my class will be making the bird feeders, and i like uyour recipe better than the ones i have found. this challenge seems like a lot of fun and i will try to incorporate other environmental acts of kindness the rest of the week!

    Reply
    • Megan Sheakoski says

      January 22, 2013 at 9:48 pm

      That’s fantastic Dawn! This is a great project! I can’t wait to hear about what you do!

      Reply
  6. Sarah Doelby says

    January 23, 2013 at 6:27 am

    I’m not sure our well fed SIngaporean birds needed this food as much as those going through a winter in the UK or US but we had fun buying the seed, making the cardboard bird feeders and hanging them in the playground of our condo. This weekend we’re hoping to visit an animal shelter to donate some food for the dogs and cats too.

    Reply
    • Megan Sheakoski says

      January 24, 2013 at 7:44 pm

      Ha! That is probably true! It’s great that you are also visiting the shelter and donating food too! Fantastic!

      Reply
  7. melissa says

    January 23, 2013 at 8:52 am

    totally doing this with my kiddos this week! thanks for sharing.

    Reply
    • Megan Sheakoski says

      January 24, 2013 at 7:35 pm

      Yay! It’s amazing how much fun acts of kindness can be!

      Reply
  8. Fatima Zahra says

    January 25, 2013 at 10:18 am

    This is a lovey idea and i am in love with this. I want to imliment this in my locality. need the owners permission

    Reply
  9. elsie says

    January 26, 2013 at 7:21 pm

    We enjoyed joining in this week and I hope the birds did too

    Reply
    • Megan Sheakoski says

      January 28, 2013 at 7:43 pm

      Yay! I’m so glad you’re joining in!!!! I LOVED your post and hope my comment went through (and that it didn’t go through too many times!) such great ideas! We are going to have to do chalk hearts too!

      Reply
  10. Amber White says

    February 1, 2013 at 4:20 pm

    LOVE this challenge! I am the founder of a community organization in Knoxvile, TN called A Spark of Kindness, and we do a monthly ‘Kindness Challenge’. We are happy to feature this week’s challenge and will be linking our readers back to this blog!

    Reply
    • Megan Sheakoski says

      February 4, 2013 at 4:32 pm

      That is fantastic Amber! I can’t wait to check out your site!

      Reply
  11. Crystal says

    March 2, 2016 at 4:18 pm

    This is so easy. Glad to find this. The little one wanted heart shapes! Thanks for the idea.

    Reply
  12. Nina Paul says

    January 11, 2022 at 4:32 am

    Thanks for sharing this. I’m sure this will help me in better feeding the birds in my area.

    Reply
  13. Amanda says

    May 4, 2022 at 9:01 pm

    These are so cute and will go great with my church’s “Camp Kindness”! How many treats will one batch make?

    Reply
    • Megan Sheakoski says

      May 9, 2022 at 10:14 am

      Depending on the size of cookie cutter you use you should be able to make about a dozen with this recipe!

      Reply

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