Kids have great imaginations. If given the chance, they are usually able to envision creating neat things from recyclables. If you are looking for a way to fill a few hours with your kids with fun and creativity, try letting them loose on what they find in your recycling containers. Here are five crafty things you and your kids can make from common household recyclables.
- Milk Cartons for the Birds
With the way most kids go through milk, there are likely many of these floating around in your blue bin. Milk cartons can be given a new lease on life to help our feathered friends. Once you’ve given a carton a thorough cleaning, cut a hole into the middle, and tie a string through the top portion. Let kids draw on them or paint them with bright colours, before helping them tie it to a tree.
- A Coffee Can Drum
There are a lot of ways to decorate a coffee can, and they naturally make a great—not too loud—drum. The plastic lid should be left on to be the drum cover. A great way to start is to have your kids either paint the can or use construction paper to cover it. Once the paint is dry, they can glue all kinds of things to their drum or use stickers to make it fancy. Kids can beat the plastic end with their bare hands or use a rubber mallet on the bottom to make it sound like a steel drum.
- Wind Chimes from Plastic Cutlery
All that’s needed for this project is plastic cutlery, a paper plate, a pencil, scissors and some string or yarn. The string should be cut into lengths about six inches long, then tied to the ends of the cutlery handles. Next, poke a few holes in the paper plate, thread the strings through, and secure each one with a knot. Finally, affix three lengths of string to the top of the plate so you can tie it to a tree branch, or somewhere else where it will hang in the breeze. Kids can decorate the plate with markers, stickers, crayons, paint or anything else that strikes their fancy, to make it their own, unique creation.
- Small Vase from Paper or Plastic Cups
Recycling containers are often home to used plastic or paper cups. For this project you need three cups, along with glue, fabric or tissue paper, and sand or pebbles. First, fill half of the first cup with sand or pebbles. Next, top-to-top, glue the second cup to the first. Finally, glue the third cup, bottom-to-bottom, to the second. Let the kids decorate their new creation with glitter, tissue paper torn into little pieces, markers or anything else they would like to use.
- A New Shine to Shoes
Take old pairs of shoes and let kids use their imaginations by painting them. Acrylic paint is best for this. Remove old laces and have kids sketch out a drawing on the shoes. If the shoes are dark, this craft might work better if the shoes are primed white.