We need help witha school project. My grandson's school is learning about the environment & recycling. They have to make "something" out of recyclables. I mean anything ! He is in first grade & the whole family can help. We are in desperate need of ideas. Thanks for any ideas !!!
Here is a simple one I really do!
I take the plastic used on my husbands shirts from the dry cleaners by tying off one end and using them to line small garbage cans.
Take a metal veggie can (clean it carefully, and make sure there aren't any rough edges around the top) and make a pencil holder!
Wrap the can with old material, old rope, anything you can think of. You can also cut pictures out of old magazines and glue on it to decorate it, also.
We had to make a bug - any kind - real or made up. We used an empty water or soda bottle for the body, cut a cereal box and made wings, and used wire for the antenna and legs. It resembled a beetle. Turned out really cute.
My daughter made a rocket ship. It was pretty cool.
Use a cardboard egg carton to start seedlings. You can cut the cups out at planting time. Plants help clean the air and the paper is biodegradable.
Use cereal box wrapped in foil to make a astronaut's "jet pack". Use string as the straps for the arms.
Use papertowel tube for making a noisemaker/rain stick. Decorate outside.
Use boxes and bottles of various sizes to make a robot.
Use box sides to make bookmarks (make enough for whole class).
Use bottles and/or jugs to make different vehicles....car, truck, train, plane, helicopter. Various size/shape platic packaging type "trash" can become accessories.
Coffee creamer containers (if white or if you paint them white) can have accessories/scraps of felt or other fabric used to make them a snowman decoration.
Snow globes out of baby food jars. You'll need jars, e6000 waterproof permanent glue, small plastic figurine(s) that will fit into the jar, glitter, glycerine (to increase viscosity of water), and blanket batting or stuffing. Glue the figurine to the inside of the lid (the jar will be displayed upside down so set the figure upright on the lid), glue batting/stuffing around the base of the figurine for snow. Follow glue instructions to dry thoroughly before adding water to jar, a few drops of glycerine, and some glitter. Use your judgment to determine how much of each; too much water and it will overflow when you add glitter and glycerine, too much glitter and it will obscure the figurine, not enough glycerine and the glitter won't stay suspended for very long. When you are sure the figurine is permanently glued to the lid, set it into the water/glycerine/glitter. Do this over the sink so any overflowing water goes down the drain. You'll need to ensure that there is a small pocket of air in the jar. Put e6000 around the lip of the jar, screw the lid on tightly, leaving the jar upright for a few days until the glue thoroughly dries. Turn the jar over, and voila, homemade snow globe! Ours are still around from 7 years ago!
We made little Valentine's gifts on year using baby food jars. We filled the jars with cinnamon sugar. We decorated the jars with stickers and put a fabric top on the lid. We included a little poem: "Here is a little something sweet to make your valentine's toast a treat." You can easily make scoops, shovels and bird feeders out of plastic 4 litre milk jugs, just by cutting them. I made library book bags from jeans I bought at the Goodwill. Fill a sock that is missing its mate with rice and tie a knot in the top and you have a magic bag for the microwave.
You can try to get enough cartons and cardboard to make a "city". Get something strong enough for a base and just build. Look on pintrest for more ideas.
My daughter had to do this last year in 1st grade. We took a laundry soap jug and cut the top off and made it so it could poor cat food out. Then she painted it and decorated it. It was supposed to be so we could use it to store the cat food and be able to easily poor it into her dish. (The problem was we couldn't get the soap smell out even after running it through the dishwasher a few times. But her teacher never knew that.)
I think I found the idea from this site:
My kids love making little christmas trees from old phone books. Simply fold each page inwards in a triangular shape. By the time you've folded over all the pages, you'll have fluffed the book out enough to make a full round tree. Staple the front and back covers together to hold in a tree shape. Spray paint or paint green.
