Recycled Art
I don’t know many households that don’t have a few empty paper rolls hanging around. They are great for crafts and we have 15 fun ideas to use paper rolls for. Earth Day is coming up and making one ( or more) of these crafts is a wonderful hands on way to teach your children about recycling.
1.Recycled Sailboat
2.Toilet Roll Frankenstein
3. Paper Roll Rocket
4.Turkey
5. Music Shaker
6.Toilet Paper Roll Puppets
7. Toilet Paper Roll Airplane
8.Campfire
9. Paper Roll Apples
10.Wrapping Paper Roll Flag
11.Family Bowling
12. Paper Roll Necklace
13. Paper Roll Flutes
14.Superhero Cuff
15. Paper Roll Flowers
We’ve been having fun with recycled materials and a few days ago when I heard my son say ” I’m bored!” I replied with ” Want to throw some eggs off the porch? ” He’s 5 so of course he said yes! I told him there was one rule we had to make a escape pod and try to protect the egg from cracking.
- Gather your materials. We rummaged through our recycle bin, my art closet and playroom. This is what we decided we might use. Immediately there was talk of a parachute. When I found a treat box it was quickly tagged as a possible parachute.
We also used bubble wrap, an egg carton, some tape, cotton balls, party streamers and yarn. Use what you have that’s the whole idea, to use what you have to make something useful to protect the egg . 
- First he lined the carton ( that we cut in half) with cotton balls and bubble wrap and added strips of party streamers.
- Then we poked holes in the treat box to make a parachute and threaded yarn through.
- Tied it on to the carton.
- Added the egg. Closed it up and used a little tape too.
- Then we trekked out to the porch and …. wait wait first we made predictions. My son predicted it would be OK. I thought it would be smashed. Then he dropped it .
- It didn’t crack!
- ” Let’s do it ’til it cracks!” OK!
- 2nd time it hit the flower box … as soon as it did my son said ” I bet that made it crack!”
- He was right. I asked him to explain why it would make it crack but the ground wouldn’t. He explained it simply but logically. ” The parachute didn’t have time to help yet and it hit hard.”
This wasn’t a planned activity but it was a blast. It would be so fun in a class to keep throwing them until only one survives!
Before you toss it in the bin, or break it down to fit into your recycling can ask yourself what can I use this for? What can I make with this? That was the inspiration for these 6 great crafts using regular old recyclables from around the house.
I have been meaning to make recycled paper with my son for ages. Finally after finding way too much scrap paper in my art closet when I cleaned it out I knew there was no time like the present ,especially with Earth Day only days away. This was not a hard craft but it does require adult participation. I have done it in a class without the use of a blender by soaking the paper for days.
- Gather your materials. You will need scrap paper, newspaper,a bowl , a blender, water , towels and a window screen. I also used a plastic cutting board to dry the paper on.
- Start by ripping your scrap paper and newspaper into small pieces. The smaller the better.
- Add water . We used a bottle from our recycling bin to help ease the mess.
- Squish, let soften for as long as your child will wait. We didn’t wait too long but the blending is easier the squishier you get the “pulp”.
- ADULT ONLY – using a blender blend the water and paper pulp.
- Put towels ( old ones from when your husband went to Mexico on Spring break in college) under your screen.
- Pop the pulp on it.
- Press the water out. We just used a dish cloth ( smooth cotton not fluffy).
- Flip onto a cutting board and let dry.
- We popped ours in our laundry room and let dry for 2 days.
- Then cut them out into hearts and added some ribbon and gave them to some dear friends.
Earth Day Books
The EARTH Book
Love Your World
Gabby and Grandma Go Green
11 Comments »
I love making things with items that would otherwise end up thrown away and with Earth Day coming up now is as good a time as any to reuse things for fun! This isn’t the first roadway we’ve made, we made this one ages ago and it’s still played with daily . If your child wants design and to make it go for it, my son decided he’d “Be the boss.” Which I am sure was a great change from being a kid and he still felt ownership and pride while playing with it knowing he was the designer. He’s already deemed this to be only for big kids and he is right – the tape used on this craft is not safe for babies or toddlers . If you are making this for a toddler I’d do this toddler friendly one instead.
- Gather your materials. You will need a green kitchen or door mat, black duck tape, additional colors of tape of your choice, permanent markers and scissors.
- Start by making a plain black road. I wrapped the tape all the way to the underside to prevent it peeling up.
- Now add the yellow lane markers.
- Time to talk about what sort of buildings to make. A fire station was not surprisingly my son’s first choice.
- Next up a police station.
- He couldn’t wait to get his vehicles on !
- A super market complete with parking lot was next.
- Here he is deciding where we should put houses.
- We also added a school, and a pond with fish.
- It was an immediate hit!
In The Town All Year Round (a perfect book match for this activity).
In the Town All Year ‘Round
What I really love is that because there is no text but still multiple story lines it’s helped my son to understand that literacy isn’t just about words, it about explaining what’s going on, and reading the pictures too. The absence of text has allowed me to really show him that . Now he has started grabbing books with text and telling me he’d read me the pictures, which boosts both his confidence and his enjoyment of independent reading.
Edited for 2011: My son is still crazy over this book. When I am desperate for him to chill out so I can get my daughter down for a nap nothing keeps him occupied ( and quiet) like this book. It’s magic!
