Bottles and cans, just clap your hands! It's time for a post on reusing materials!
Can you tell this is one of my favorite concepts to teach? And I'm so glad we decided to focus on it early in the year instead of spring, like we did last year. I think this will set the stage for some great projects and STEAM ideas throughout the year. My only regret is not taking some more pictures.
You can find the lesson plan for this unit here.
Let's dive in!
I added some pictures to our memory book from when we made paper. They're included below so you can see the process. The paper we made last week was finally dry this week, so we observed and described it.
We started the week with a giant box full of objects like bottlecaps, bottles, boxes,etc. I called their attention to a comment a student had made on a KWL chart that we could reuse objects. We held up several objects and asked the students what they could make with them. Responses were sparse; they hadn't really thought about it before.
The next day we made a junk band. I invited the students to pick an object that would make music, then we just played and had fun. We talked about counting to 2, to 3, and to 4, then we counted out loud as we played. The students copied rhythms from each other. We went around the circle and added instruments one by one. I didn't get a good picture, but here's a music video featuring people making music with coffee cups:
A few of the students took their "instruments" to the Music center and continued to play.
Wednesday, I set aside some cardboard and asked the students what they wanted to make for Dramatic Play. They colored a sign and said they wanted to make a shop, but it didn't really take off. I didn't devote a lot of attention to it because we made these instead:
Those are the 3 Little Pigs houses. The students have loved that story this year. One morning, a student grabbed a box from our junk collection and said, "I want to reuse this!" I asked him what he wanted to make and he said, "A house!" I suggested the 3 Little Pigs and with most of the students, we got to work wrapping the boxes and painting them. The brick and sticks house still need some work, but the straw house is finished. If you look closely, you can see clouds, windows, and doors.
We worked on some paper mache, which has so many great skills. Tearing, crumpling, painting, planning. The best part about these and the houses above is that they were multi-day; in the picture above, you can see our sign that says, "Work in Progress." I love encouraging students to come back to something to work on it some more.
The highlight of the week was our Maker Day. We invited parents to come in and make something out of junk with their children. We stayed back as much as we could and asked a few guiding questions if the parents seemed to be struggling. We also had some questions in English and Spanish on the table. Look below for our setup and creations.
One student said that she wanted to continue learning about recycling and I told her, "Don't worry. We'll reuse parts all year long!"
If you want to learn more about loose parts, I've included some links below:
What are loose parts?
Loose parts Toolkit
Loose parts on Pinterest
Find a reuse store near you! My hoozits & whatsits (like the green bottlecaps & black cylinders) came from Scrap Exchange, which also offers fantastic workshops. I encourage you to look near you for similar resources.
Happy Teaching!
Amy
Can you tell this is one of my favorite concepts to teach? And I'm so glad we decided to focus on it early in the year instead of spring, like we did last year. I think this will set the stage for some great projects and STEAM ideas throughout the year. My only regret is not taking some more pictures.
You can find the lesson plan for this unit here.
Let's dive in!
I added some pictures to our memory book from when we made paper. They're included below so you can see the process. The paper we made last week was finally dry this week, so we observed and described it.
 |
| I forgot to take a picture of the finished product, but here's a piece of it that we sent home with the students. It was very thick, a lot like cardboard. |
We started the week with a giant box full of objects like bottlecaps, bottles, boxes,etc. I called their attention to a comment a student had made on a KWL chart that we could reuse objects. We held up several objects and asked the students what they could make with them. Responses were sparse; they hadn't really thought about it before.
The next day we made a junk band. I invited the students to pick an object that would make music, then we just played and had fun. We talked about counting to 2, to 3, and to 4, then we counted out loud as we played. The students copied rhythms from each other. We went around the circle and added instruments one by one. I didn't get a good picture, but here's a music video featuring people making music with coffee cups:
A few of the students took their "instruments" to the Music center and continued to play.
Wednesday, I set aside some cardboard and asked the students what they wanted to make for Dramatic Play. They colored a sign and said they wanted to make a shop, but it didn't really take off. I didn't devote a lot of attention to it because we made these instead:
Those are the 3 Little Pigs houses. The students have loved that story this year. One morning, a student grabbed a box from our junk collection and said, "I want to reuse this!" I asked him what he wanted to make and he said, "A house!" I suggested the 3 Little Pigs and with most of the students, we got to work wrapping the boxes and painting them. The brick and sticks house still need some work, but the straw house is finished. If you look closely, you can see clouds, windows, and doors.
We worked on some paper mache, which has so many great skills. Tearing, crumpling, painting, planning. The best part about these and the houses above is that they were multi-day; in the picture above, you can see our sign that says, "Work in Progress." I love encouraging students to come back to something to work on it some more.
The highlight of the week was our Maker Day. We invited parents to come in and make something out of junk with their children. We stayed back as much as we could and asked a few guiding questions if the parents seemed to be struggling. We also had some questions in English and Spanish on the table. Look below for our setup and creations.
One student said that she wanted to continue learning about recycling and I told her, "Don't worry. We'll reuse parts all year long!"
If you want to learn more about loose parts, I've included some links below:
What are loose parts?
Loose parts Toolkit
Loose parts on Pinterest
Find a reuse store near you! My hoozits & whatsits (like the green bottlecaps & black cylinders) came from Scrap Exchange, which also offers fantastic workshops. I encourage you to look near you for similar resources.
Happy Teaching!
Amy
