Sharing the Wealth

I consider myself to be the self proclaimed "Queen of Recycle." I make this declaration because I do a lot of projects with my students that involve recycles. We are a Title One school so my budget is not great, besides I find it fun to make art from recycles!

During Meet the Teacher Night a little kindergarten student visited with her grandfather. Her grandfather walked around the room noticing all the stuff on shelves.

I told the grandfather I was big on using recycles in my program. Well...... he said he has some stuff for me! And boy did he!

 I came in Monday morning to over a dozen boxes of plastic goodies in my art room!

 BIG THANK YOU ED!!!

Above is one sample from each box that I decided that I would share with the other art teachers district wide.

The Fine Arts Supervisor sent out an email. 10 teachers responded. It took me 3 days to sort and pack up the stuff for the warehouse to pickup and deliver to the other schools.  I sent out 12 boxes on Wednesday.

What I find funny is, I had started to share out many of my recycles at the beginning of the school year and had already sent out 11 boxes to other teachers. As the Queen of Recycle, my kingdom is a hoarder's, I mean art teacher's dream. 

So, I didn't share everything because I came up with a great way to use some of the containers I got.

Check it out! Do some colorful patterns on these containers, add some uncooked rice or beans and make maracas!

Or Native American rattles.

I got 2 boxes of containers and another box with lids. I also have leather scraps from my daughter's mother-in-law who got them from a neighbor who does upholstery.

  

I used Faber-Castell gel sticks to paint/stain the leather. I rubbed it into the leather with a piece of foam, recycled from the iPad boxes. Then I did a radial design with Sharpies.

 

 I made a slit in the container for a craft stick.  I cut thin strips of the leather to tie onto the stick, however, yarn can also be used. Added pony beads and feathers. Beans inside for noise. And hot glued it all together.

  

I researched Native American rattles and was fascinated by the rich history. Rattles are comprised of 3 kingdoms or nations: animal, mineral and plants. Each of those kingdoms contribute to the rattle. The animal by using it's skin, shell or feathers. Minerals inside for sound or colors. And plants for container or the wooden handle. Read more about it here. I can't wait to do this with my students!

Here are some other recycle projects that have been popular with my students. Bobble heads from coffee creamer containers click here for details

Students did the fishbowls with cake lids that were donated to me.

 

These puppets from split yogurt containers that were in the art room when I started at this school. Turns out they came from Ed, the grandfather who dropped off all that stuff earlier in this post. He was apparently very generous when his children attended the school. 😀

Here are more recycle projects that I have blogged about, check out: Hoarder's Heaven, and Creating Architecture with Corners.

I would love to hear about your favorite recycle project!  Are you wondering how I how I have so many recycles? I ask for them! I tell the students, I show parents on Meet the Teacher Night and put blurbs in the school newsletter. And the stuff just rolls in ........

This week on October 4 marks 3 years of blogging! I went from 20,000 page views in my first year to almost 120,000 by the end of my third year. I am delighted to share with all of you and hope you enjoy reading my posts as much as I enjoy writing them!

Again thanks for Reading!!