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How to...

February 11, 2022 •The Week Junior

If your family has a laptop or tablet that you share or that you

use for school, you may be used to charging it overnight. While

it’s convenient to charge devices while you sleep, it’s not the

most eco-friendly time to charge them. This is because a charger

continues to use electricity as long as it’s plugged into an outlet.

This is true even after your device is fully charged. To save

energy, try to charge a device when you’re able to unplug it and

the charger from the outlet as soon as the battery is full. If you

put a tablet or phone on airplane mode, that will help it charge

faster, which also helps to use less energy.

Make valentine cards

What you need

OScrap paper and

other construction

paper

OInk pads (or craft

paint and a paper

plate)

OBlank cards (or heavy

paper that you fold

into a card)

OMarker

OString, optional

OScissors

OWhite clear-drying

glue

Instructions

1. These cards are decorated using
   fi ngerprints and thumbprints. Start
   by practicing making prints on scrap
   paper. Press the pad of your fi nger
   or thumb onto an ink pad and then
   press it onto paper. Try to keep your
   thumb or fi nger parallel to the paper
   and push straight down so you get the
   full print. If you don’t have an ink pad,
   spread watered-down craft paint on a
   paper plate and use that to make your
   thumbprints and fi ngerprints.


2. To make the card with hearts all over
   it, start by making one thumbprint

diagonally to the left on your paper.

Let it dry for a few seconds, then add

another thumbprint diagonally to

the right with the bottoms of your

thumbs lining up and overlapping.

Make more hearts all over your

paper, either in random spots or in a

pattern, such as stripes.

3. To make the people made out of
   thumbprints, start with a thumbprint
   heart, as described in step 2. Let
   the ink dry. Use a marker to add a
   face, arms, and legs. You can leave
   the people as they are, or you can
   take another piece of paper, cut

Be mindful of

wasting energy.

ECO TIP

WEEK

OF

THE

CHARGE DEVICES

MORE EFFICIENTLY

out a small square, and write a

message on it, such as “I love

you.” Glue it to the card and draw

a line for a stick if you want to

show the person holding the sign.

4. For the bee card, use your thumb
   to print a yellow bee body. Use
   your pinky to print two sets of
   wings. Allow those to dry for a few
   minutes and then draw on stripes,
   a face, and a stinger. Cut a talk
   bubble out of colored paper, write
   “Bee mine,” and glue it to the card.


5. For the balloon card, make one
   thumbprint heart, like in step
   2. Then draw a triangle at the
   bottom of the heart to look like the
   balloon’s knot. Glue a string on the
   card coming from the balloon.


6. To make the rock card, use several
   fi ngers to print diff erent-sized
   rocks in a pile shape. Print out
   (or hand-write) “You rock!” onto
   diff erent-colored paper and cut it
   out to make a sign. Glue it to the
   card and draw on a stick.

SWEET

MESSAGES

About 145 million

Valentine’s Day cards are

exchanged every year in the US.