Over the past couple of months, the JKK classroom at RisingOaks Early Learning | St. Patrick has been exploring and experimenting with a variety of recycled materials to create crafts, sculptures, dramatic play items, and more. We invited families to bring in recycled materials they no longer needed, and educators also contributed items so the children could use them to create fun and meaningful projects. Some of the materials we explored included toilet paper rolls, Styrofoam containers, cardboard boxes, coffee filters, ripped scrap paper, and other loose parts.

Throughout this experience, the children created many imaginative and creative pieces. We saw them transform toilet paper rolls into purses, sunscreen bottles, and makeup tubes. They also worked together to create cat beds using cardboard boxes, scrap paper, toilet paper rolls, and a variety of other recycled materials. On another day, the children made flowers using coffee filters and pipe cleaners, as well as nests using Styrofoam containers, popsicle sticks, and any additional materials they chose to include in their creations.

Overall, this experience helped the children develop a greater understanding of how recycled materials can be reused to create beautiful and sometimes functional works of art. Most importantly, it provided the children with opportunities to strengthen one of their greatest skills: their creativity and imagination.