Activity Overview: This activity focuses on the “reuse” theme of reduce-reuse-recycle. Students collect waste materials (paper, bottles, cans, cardboard tubes, fabric, etc) and find other uses for them either practically, for a school project, or as art objects. Cutting utensils or sharp objects may not be suitable for younger students, but otherwise this is an activity for students of all ages.
Activity 1: Recycled Puppets
Materials:
- empty salt boxes
- serrated knife
- colored markers
- fabric scissors (old)
- fabric (clothing, sheets, curtains)
- stapler
- ribbons or lace scraps
Procedure:
- Cut the tops off the saltboxes for students. Then have the students draw faces on the tops.
- Cut the fabric into 8 inch by 8 inch pieces. Help students staple the cloth around the rim of the box top. Staple the open seam together.
- Have students staple ribbon or lace around the cloth edges. To make the puppet talk, students move the spout back and forth.
Reuse puppets in a play or use as an environmental message.
Activity taken from Integrated Thematic Units, Copyright © 1992 Scholastic, Inc. TES course 1994
Activity 2: Diorama
Materials:
- steel and aluminum cans
- paper and newspaper
- rags and old clothes
- well-loved or out-of-use school supplies
- cardboard boxes
- crates
- shoeboxes
Procedure:
Students work individually or in groups to decide a scene from a book either read in class or at home to illustrate. Using the shoebox as a “stage,” students should recreate the scene or setting, reusing as many materials as necessary to tell the story. Pencils too short to write can become a fence, and small cardboard boxes can serve as buildings in the setting. Creativity counts, and the more materials used again rather than on first use, the better.
Extension:
Students can create an original scene or setting and then write a story to accompany it. Encourage students to employ a conservationist or environmental theme when composing their original works of literature.
