If you are a teacher, chances are you might have inadvertently become a hoarder, or maybe a better word would be resourceful. We all know teachers are extremely underpaid and are not given a large budget to buy supplies for the students, so teachers are constantly looking for ways they can recycle and reuse items for class. Teachers are the ultimate recyclers! Here are some ways to recycle some common household items back into the classroom, while also teaching your students about the importance of recycling.
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Cereal Boxes into Cereal Box Book Reports
If you have multiple children, chances are that you go through many cereal boxes at home! These boxes are such a great shape, they are thin cardboard and also great size to be able to transport to and from school. Bring in your empty cereal boxes to your teachers and ask them to do a Cereal Box book report instead of the boring essay book reports! Here’s what you need to know about cereal box book reports:
- Front- Students will create an interesting box design for the cereal. This will be a cereal to go with the book that the student reads. For Example for Harry Potter, you could create “Potter’s Golden Snitch Cereal.” Give them creative freedom to make a neat design.
- Sides- will be the ingredients of the story. This will include the main idea, plot, and main characters.
- Back- Students will make up an activity or game to play on the back of the box. For example, you could make a maze for Harry to escape out of the forest.
Toilet Paper Rolls and Bottle Caps into Art
Toilet paper rolls and bottle caps are great ways to make fun and interesting art designs! Especially since bottle caps come in all different sizes and colors, you can create anything with these! One idea would be to use these around winter time and make snowmen. You can paint the toilet paper rolls white and use the bottle caps for the eyes, nose and mouth for your snowmen!
Dead Markers for Science
Teachers go through so many markers during the year! From art drawing markers, to whiteboard markers, teachers are constantly throwing away dead markers. Instead of throwing these away, you could use these for science class. The possibilities are endless, but some ways you could use them could be to: weigh them and compare weights, or you could build towers with them to experiment with building structures and see how much weight they can sustain without breaking or falling down.
Shoe Boxes for Dioramas
Shoe boxes can be the perfect item to recycle especially for classrooms! Teachers will be able to find a million uses for shoe boxes and will be so thankful if you save your shoe boxes and bring them into class. One perfect way they can be used for learning would be to use them as dioramas. This type of project can be super fun for students. You could have them learn about a unique animal and have them create a diorama for the animal. They can create the perfect habitat inside the shoe box. Shoe boxes are also perfect just for organization!
Next time you think about throwing something away, maybe think twice and see if your child’s teacher might be able to use it. They will be so thankful!