Soda Tab Bracelets!

Fourth grade student, Milena, wowed me with a really cool way to reuse soda tabs for jewelry!


Her cousin taught her this cool technique in which ribbons are weaved through soda tabs to connect them into a beautiful bracelet.

You can see the detailed weaving in this shot.

Here is another work-in-progress. Milena is planning on wearing this one for Halloween!

Here's the artist modeling her work! So beautiful and intricate! And fashionable as well! This is a great reminder that jewelry is an art form, too. What other recycled materials could you use to make unique jewelry? Please share your ideas with us in a comment, or bring your work to show me in the art room!
Thanks for sharing Milena!

A Recycled-Robot!

Raka in the fifth grade brought in this awesome sculpture that he made at home with recycled materials. Not only does his robot look super cool, it looks super friendly, too!

He used an egg carton for a body, water bottles for legs,

a Sprite box for the arms, hands, and feet,

and a Styrofoam to-go box and bottle caps for the head! He used clear packing tape to securely join his robot together.

Thanks for sharing your work with us Raka!!!

A GREEN Art Car!

This awesome car was made at home by kindergartner Zack Barrera, with some help from his father! He used bottle caps, straws, toothpicks, and a paper towel roll to construct this moving vehicle (and it rolls smoothly, too!) The fiery red paint makes it look extra fast!

I love that my students are going home and using the ideas we talked about in class to come up with their own unique creations! There are SO many possibilities when using found and recycled materials, I'm so glad you are exploring them outside the limits of the classroom.

Please continue to share ideas and show us what you've made! Great job, Zack!

Recycled Paper Art!!!!

Two of my very talented and dedicated first grade students Carter and Eleanor started working on this awesome collage during their free time in my art room last week. Carter started it, then they worked on it together, and then Eleanor took it home and finished it! There is ribbon and wrapping paper on it too. It's about as tall as a first grader!

How cool to see my students taking what they do in here and expanding on it at home! Thanks for sharing your work with me!

An Artistic and Eco-Friendly Gift

I am so excited that my students are already so creative and enthusiastic when it comes to being green. Just a day after I taught her class, one of my students went home and made this. She reused cardboard from a food box, cut it open, folded, and hot-glued it to make a really cool hanging pencil cup. She also attached some safety pins so I could hang something from it. Isn't that creative? And useful!


Great idea Caroline!

Reuse, Reuse, Reuse!!!

For our first lesson in the art room this year, all students talked about what it means to "Go Green." Each class came up with ways we can use the 3 r's - reduce, reuse and recycle - in the art room. 5th, 4th and 3rd grade students worked as groups at their tables to come up with ideas for how to reuse a variety of items in the art room. Here are some of the materials they had to use and the ideas they came up with!

These extra sponges from the hospital can be used to wipe tables, make stamps, or paint with; some even come on sticks like paintbrushes! The blue plastic bin they came in has different compartments that we can use to sort art materials. The old shirt can be ripped into rags to clean with, or cut into pieces to make a quilt!

We can reuse old marker and glue caps to replace lost or broken caps. We can also reuse them to build or add details to a sculpture! They can also be dipped into paint to make stamps! We are collecting caps like this and the kind from plastic bottles for a great art unit this year! (see the post below.)

Styrofoam trays can be used as paint pallets, printmaking plates, or supply trays. Styrofoam packing blocks can be used for building or can be carved away to make a sculpture! Some students thought they would make good texture stamps, too! Styrofoam cups can be used for paint water, or they can be used as a strong support inside a sculpture!

Cardboard from packaging material or boxes of food can be broken down and used as a surface for painting, or assembled to make a sculpture. Cardboard tubes from tape rolls could make funky jewelry, or they can be stacked together to make a pencil cup!

Paper plates can make great masks or paint pallets, as well as sturdy parts of a paper sculpture. Old packaging baggies can be used to store parts for a project - like small paper for a collage! Do you know how to paint by blowing through a straw? Straws can also be used for parts of sculptures - like legs for bugs! Aluminum tins could be a great place to put paper scraps at each table!

There were so many great ideas. I can tell already that these students are ready to get going on the road to Going Green!

What other materials do you think we could REUSE in the art room? Do you have any other thoughts about these materials? Share them with us in a comment!