Our environment is sometimes an unexplored natural resource, often overlooked for its wealth of possibilities, and not always appreciated or looked after as it should be! 

 Nature-Friendly Children is an Etwinning project that wants to help children around the world to discover the importance of recycling and taking care of our nature.

    Somewhere is a small village there was a boy named Timmy. He loved to have a lot of toys but he didn't enjoy playing with them too much. He used them and then got bored of them. His parents were confused because they didn't know what should they do. Timmy was having a lot of full boxes with toys but he refused to play with them anymore.

    One day his parents decided to teach Tommy how to create his own toys. So with his dad's help he created Roco, a bee created from recycled materials. His dad told Timmy that he can change his appearance everytime he wants and that will make him feel like a new time everytime he draws or attach something to it. 

      Timmy was happy about his father's idea and started to take care and play with his new friend.                                  (Girleanu Ramona)

       Timmy, who was playing with a toy named Roco, started to get bored after a while. I think I need a new toy, he thought, and then he remembered what his father had said. He was going to make changes to Roco, but he didn't want to decide what kind of changes to make on his own. Timmy shared the situation with his mother and waited impatiently for his father to come home from work. He went out to meet his father at the garden gate. The large garden wall was surrounded by a wire fence. As he watched for his father from behind the fence, he saw his teacher passing by. Timmy loved his teacher very much. He trusted her with everything and valued her bright ideas. "Teacher, teacher!" he shouted excitedly and mentioned about Roco. His teacher said she 'd iked this idea.

         Seeing the excitement and curiosity of Timmy, who is only a 2nd grader, his teacher said that they would cover these topics in their lessons in the coming days and that they would do various activities and projects. Timmy welcomed this with joy. His teacher said: "Timmy, you have already handled this subject, if you want, let me give you brief information about 'What is recycling?', 'What are the benefits of recycling?', 'What kind of wastes are recycled?', 'What kind of processes are done?'" and started to explain.         

TuranBOZ / Yukarı Kocayatak Primary School

"Recycling is the process of making waste materials reusable. This helps to reduce the amount of trees cut down. Natural resources are consumed and energy is saved. Glass, plastic, paper, metal, metal, wood, batteries and organic waste can all be recycled". Timmy thanked his teacher and started to renew Roco. He made a wing out of waste colored paper to replace the old one. His antennae were replaced with waste straws. He made its needle out of toothpicks. Roco's eyes, made from a waste tank lid, were replaced with multi-colored waste buttons. He decided to make a propeller made of plastic bottles for the motor he found in his father's workshop. After many attempts he managed to make it fly. While flying Roco in the backyard, he got stuck in a tree. He started thinking about how to save Roco.                    ( Mustafa Güler, Yukarı K. P. School )

He was very saddened by Roco getting stuck in the tree. Being sad was not a solution. He needed to find a way to rescue Roco somehow. First, he looked around. He thought about how he could get Roco down from the tree. Suddenly, he noticed a long ladder made of tree waste. The ladder was made from waste materials. He watched in admiration as waste materials were being utilized and transformed into something useful that could meet a need. He immediately brought the ladder to the tree, took the necessary safety precautions, and climbed up the tree. He reached Roco. He freed Roco from where he was stuck and climbed down. He started to check if Roco had any broken or damaged parts. There were minor damages. He began to research the materials needed to repair Roco's damages.                                     ( İbrahim Türkmen)

He immediately ran to his mother and told her what had happened. He said he wanted to replace Roco's wing with a more durable recycled material. Together with his mother, they thought about what material the wing could be made of. His mother thought of the plastic materials in the storage room. Timmy used these materials to repair Roco's wing. Roco was now transformed into a healthier toy.

Timmy loved making toys from recycled materials and then improving them by changing their parts. While he used to get bored of his previous toys very quickly, he never parted with Roco and enjoyed playing with him very much. Timmy decided to share this fun experience with his friends.                                                  (HALİS BURAK FİDAN)

       On the morning of a beautiful day, Timmy saw Ece and Dumitru in the schoolyard and excitedly ran towards them. "You won't believe what happened! I found a new friend; or rather, I 'made' one! His name is "Roco - Talking Toy" said Timmy. Dumitru and Ece couldn't hide their amazement and said they had never seen a talking toy before. Timmy explained that he made Roco with recycled materials, using different items such as straws, toothpicks and plastics, changing its appearance each time. He said: "Recycling is both cheap and good for the environment". His friends listened to Timmy with interest and said that this was a very good idea and that they were very curious about Roco. "Why don't we do something for Roco together?" said Ece. "Let's find new materials then!" replied Timmy. As the three friends imagined the games they would play with Roco, they excitedly searched for recyclable materials.       (Gülsu Zengin)

Timmy, Ece and Dumitru went straight home after school. Timmy introduced Roco to his friends. Roco was exactly as the children had imagined. Ece stopped suddenly while examining Roco:

_There is something very big missing in Roco!

Timmy and Dumitru:

_What is it? they asked. Ece:

_Of course it is a mouth, she said. We have to give Roco a mouth, he has to talk to us.

Timmy and Dumitru:    _Great idea! they shouted. 

They drew a beautiful mouth for Roco with a marker and Roco now had a mouth. The children began to imagine Roco talking to them. In their imagination Roco was saying the following: 

_ Friends, thank you so much for making me a talking bee using recycled materials. I have wings made of paper, antennae made of straws and a stinger made of toothpicks. If my paper wings tear, they can become plastic wings. If my straw antennae break, my wire antennae can replace them. If my toothpick needle breaks, a pin will do the job. _That's right, said Timmy. It's fun to make toys from recycled materials. I never get bored with the toys I make and I can change them whenever I want. Ece interjected: _This way, the leftover materials do not harm the nature. Meanwhile, a thin voice rose from Roco:

_But I am very lonely, I want to have a talking toy friend like me. 

Hearing this, the three friends felt very sorry for Roco. They decided to make him a toy friend.                                          (FATMA ELGE)

Timmy and his friends decided to surprise Roco and invited his friends to the garden of their house to design a new toy . Together they started collecting materials that they could recycle and use and they were very upset because there was a lot of waste material and it was polluting the environment. Ece said "we have to find a way to get rid of all this waste". At that time, they saw their friends fighting over toys in the neighbourhood and they immediately ran towards them and told them not to fight. 

Timmy said "Friends, why don't we tell our other friends that they can make toys from recycled materials?" His friends said that it made a lot of sense. They said they would tell many of their friends about designing toys; so Roco would have more than one friend and they would get rid of the waste that harms nature by using the waste around us. Therefore, they gathered all the children in the neighbourhood.

                                                            Bilge ERDEM GERGER