Five Crafts for America Recycles Day

November 15 is America Recycles Day, an entire day dedicated to pledging and educating others about the importance the verbs reduce, reuse, and recycle! Teachers will use this day to teach their students about recycling and its benefits to the environment. 

For preschool and elementary school students, Education World has generated five fun crafts that teachers can use in the classroom. The cool part about these crafts is that they are all composed of recyclable and reusable materials. 

1. Cardboard Tube Batman: Students can make some of their favorite super heroes out of reusable materials such as toilet paper rolls and construction paper. 

What you need: 

• 4-inch cardboard tube
• Construction paper: light blue, black, yellow, white
• Peach crayon 
• Scissors
• Batman pattern 

What to do: 

1. Use a glue stick to cover the tube with the light blue paper. 
2. Print the patterns, and cut out the mask/head section from the black paper. Cut a piece of white paper to fit under the mask, leaving a little excess around it so you will be able to glue it to the back of the mask. 
3. Color the white paper with the peach crayon and glue it to the back of the mask. 
4. Cut small eyes from the yellow paper and glue it to the front of the mask. Glue the mask to the cardboard tube. Cut the pants from the black paper and glue it around the cardboard tube. Cut a strip of yellow paper for the belt and glue it to the top of the pants. 
5. Cut out a bat cape from the black paper. Glue the bat to his chest and the cape to his back. 

Students can also follow the same instructions for the Spiderman tube here. 

2. Fall Leaf Finger Puppets: Teachers can bring fall into the mix while completing this craft used from cardboard tubes and natural resources.

What you need: 

• cardboard tubes
• pebbles or bark
• leaves
• twigs
• wiggle eyes

What to do:

1. Hot glue the leaf to the top of the cardboard tube for the head.
2. Hot glue the twigs to the sides of the tube for the arms.
3. Hot glue pebbles or small pieces of bark to the front of the tube for buttons.
4. Add wiggle eyes to the leaf head.

3. Recycled Gardens: It's cold outside, but that doesn't mean you still can't garden! In this activity, students will use cardboard cereal boxes, straws, caps, and lids to create recycled flowers. 

What you need: 

• Construction paper, blue
• Scissors
• Cereal boxes
• Straws
• Caps
• Lids
• Glue

What to do:

1. Cut out the cardboard boxes into the shapes of flowers and stems. Cut straws into stems.  
2. Create flowers with the pieces, being as creative as you can. 
3. Glue your masterpiece on to the blue construction paper. 

4. Octopus Toilet Paper Roll: Students can create their own fun octopus out of toilet paper rolls or paper towel rolls. 

What you need: 

• Toilet paper roll or paper towel roll
• Paint (any color)
• Wiggle eyes
• Scissors
• Black marker
• Stickers

What to do:

1. Use scissors or an x-acto knife to cut slits on the bottom of the toilet paper roll to create the octopus' tentacles. Push the top of the roll down towards the table so they spread out.
2. Paint the entire body with any color you want.
3. Wait for the paint to dry, and add some wiggle eyes. 
4. With a black marker, draw the octopus' smile, use the stickers to design the tentacles. 

5. Toilet Paper Race Car: With these reusable materials, students can create and then race their own custom-made cars. 

What you need: 

• Toilet paper roll
• Paint
• Hole punch
• Markers
• Scissors
• Four plastic bottle lids
• Two toothpicks
• One straw

What to do:

1. Start by decorating the paper towel roll. Children can use paint, markers, stickers, or all three!
2. Trim the straw to just a little shorter than the toothpicks. Wait for the car to dry. 
3. Punch holes at each end of the roll and thread the straw through. Insert the toothpicks through each straw. 
4. Punch small holes into the plastic lids- make sure the hole is directly in the center. 
5. Put the wheels at the end of the toothpicks.
6. Optional: cut a hole in the center of the toilet paper for a small action figure or toy. 

Article by Kassondra Granata, Education World Contributor