recyclables to school tools

[Wilhemina]

I'm rinsing out a broken egg shell for my DD to take to Sunday School for an art project and thinking about all the things I throw away that could make a great material for other projects.

What do you rescue from the trash/recycle bin and how do you use it?

A few of my ideas:

I save plastic flatware for playdoh and clay working tools. Also great for new painting experiences.

We grow plants from fruits and vegetable leftovers.

My kids love the cardboard pizza rounds. They trace the circles, use them as "stepping stones" to their "fort" and turn them into masks.

I've been saving small pizza boxes and six pack containers for over a year so I can have enough for kids parties to make concrete stepping stones (in pizza boxes) and gingerbread houses (with six packs).

Your turn!

[daylily]

Those are good ideas! My kids love those pizza rounds too.

Here's one I read in Homeschooling from Scratch: save the plastic caps from milk containers and use them as manipulatives for teaching math.

[mom2threenurslings]

We recycle all sorts of things. Here are a few:

Egg cartons: Great for sorting things - get different colored buttons and color the bottoms of the egg carton spaces different colors...have kids but buttons in corresponding spaces or write numbers in the bottoms of the spaces and have kids put corresponding number of dried beans in the spaces. You can also make a mancala game with an egg carton and dried beans. Egg cartons also make great rain sticks...just put rice in the compartments, tape (duct!) egg carton closed, stand on end and listen to the "rain" Also great for caterpillar craft.

Bits & pieces of crayons can be melted down and reformed into different shaped crayons using either a toilet paper tube for a giant multicolored crayon or candy molds for smaller crayons.

Milk jug caps (and other plastic caps) can be used as math manipulatives. A game even my preschooler loves is when you cut a slot in the lid of a plastic container and have the child put the caps into the container through the slot. You can write letters, numbers or put colors on the caps and have the child put the correct letter/etc. into the container.

Film canisters make excellent "rockets" when you put a little baking soda in one, add vinegar, cover promptly ...

Half gallon milk cartons make great bird feeders.

We save just about everything we can and throw it in our craft bin. Great works of art can be created and interesting games can be invented by children given miscellaneous "junk"!

I could go on and on....

Amanda and the ELFscholars