Recycling
The Great Cardboard Discovery
When I first became a classroom teacher, I really wanted my students to build cool projects. I went out and bought pieces of wood, but I quickly ran into a problem: wood is super expensive! Plus, it took me forever to cut and sand everything in my workshop at home just to get it ready for class.
Then, one day, something awesome happened. My class and I were eating lunch when one student finished her sandwich and asked, "Can I keep working on my project?" I told her it was fine with me.
Instead of grabbing a piece of wood, she pulled out a small piece of cardboard about the size of a library book. She walked over to the scroll saw, adjusted the hold down fingers, turned on the switch and cut the piece of cardboard. I watched, curious to see what would happen next.
When I first became a classroom teacher, I really wanted my students to build cool projects. I went out and bought pieces of wood, but I quickly ran into a problem: wood is super expensive! Plus, it took me forever to cut and sand everything in my workshop at home just to get it ready for class.
Then, one day, something awesome happened. My class and I were eating lunch when one student finished her sandwich and asked, "Can I keep working on my project?" I told her it was fine with me.
Instead of grabbing a piece of wood, she pulled out a small piece of cardboard about the size of a library book. She walked over to the scroll saw, adjusted the hold down fingers, turned on the switch and cut the piece of cardboard. I watched, curious to see what would happen next.
This is a recycling bag that a student used to carry boxboard (cereal boxes) from home to the classroom. The boxboard was used to construct projects.
I stored the boxboard in a laundry baskets. The laundry basket made it easy to move the boxboard around the classroom's work benches.
The main recyclable material we used in the classroom was cardboard. Here we are designing and constructing a castle with a drawbridge.
Recycled Materials I Used
Teachers; When buying baskets for your class, buy six, high quality, all the same size.
The caretaker in my school appreciated the class placing all paper based products in one plastic bag.
I stood there with my jaw dropping. I couldn't believe it! I had never even thought about using cardboard to make a project and,on top of that, using a saw to cut cardboard.
This smart student was designing and building something amazing using a material that was totally free.
In that moment, everything changed for me. I realized I didn't need expensive wood to be a great builder. From then on, I knew exactly what we were going to use in our classroom: cardboard!
