Upcycle: Elementary kids get a lesson in recycling

Recycle or upcycle

My daughter and her second-grade classmates recently learned a little about recycling and got to do a little upcycling in the process.
The assignment: Turn discarded items you find around the home into something useful.

My daughter’s idea: A tin-can “robot army” that functions as a desk organizer.

Because a person can use only so many pens and pencils, my husband and I recommended that she scale it down to a single pencil holder, but we both agreed that making it look like a robot would be adorable.

She created a face on a circle of cardboard and made robot “feet” out of the bays of an egg carton. She drew start and stop buttons onto used paper, and cut slivers of cardboard and glued them on the side to look like arms.

In the end, it looked very little like a robot, and, to be honest, if I were to go to the store and buy a pencil holder, I’d choose one that looked a lot more generic than what she created (though, once the one she made comes back home from school, I really hope she gives it to me).

But I love the assignment and what it teaches kids about finding new purposes for discarded items. I like that they had a lesson about the damage caused by all the garbage we generate and accumulate.

I hope she continues to see possibilities in our everyday garbage.


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