Sunday being our last day of Spring break I decided I wanted to do something fun with my daughters. They both enjoy creating art. With Earth day coming up on April 22nd it felt fitting to incorporate recycled media into our art project. I told them they could create whatever they wanted the only stipulation I had was that they had to incorporate recycled materials. I grabbed out our basket of recyclable materials my two year old daughter dumped them all out on the floor and began to dig in.
My oldest daughter (age 6) likes to do almost everything her own way, and when she’s given suggestions it’s met with frustration. Therefore when it comes to art I allow her to do what she wants how she wants because art is a safe place to express oneself. In life we all need a place to feel in control and art is that place for her.
My youngest daughter started off looking for materials she wanted to use for her own project. Quickly she changed her mind and jumped in to help me with mine. We used a box and a plastic piece from a toy figurine package to make our monster. I cut the front off the box, then my daughter and I filled it with various things which would represent what the monster had ate. We taped it to the box. When finished my daughter insisted on taping a water bottle to the back of the monster. To me it looked like jet pack to help the monster fly. We added construction paper to the top to make a face.
My oldest daughter made several different projects. When we finished I then was left with trying to decide what to do with everything we made. My daughter and I hung most of the projects on our walls in the living room and kitchen with yarn. Our house is filled of their art all over the walls, I love their projects although they take up a lot of space. Therefore I placed a tote in my oldest daughter’s room to fill with crafts she has made since not everything fits upon the walls of our tiny home.
Since we made a few monsters my oldest daughter decided she wanted to play with the monster sight word characters I’ve made in the past. My children memories are much better than mine, so I was lost for a moment on what she was talking about. Then I remembered the characters I had made for Halloween. In our house we try to re-use and keep previous learning materials to save on waste. Therefore we pulled them out of the closet and used them to hide throughout the house.
(I am a participant in the Amazon Associates Program and any qualifying purchases made through affiliate links I may earn a commission on at no additional cost to you.) Items show above are my Amazon picks for great materials to use during craft time.
With Earth day coming up this month it’s a great time to get inspired and create using recycled materials. I hope some of these ideas inspire you and your little ones to get out there create and reuse and remember messes can always be cleaned up. That’s what I remind myself during art time when all our materials are scattered all over the place and our living room is a complete mess.
Learning with Nana Hedgehog 