Beyond Paper: Eco-Friendly Crafts

Sometimes I think kindergarten teachers should be arrested because of the mounds of paper that are sent home on a daily basis. The father of my child’s preschool buddy looked mortified at me when I said that, but I could wallpaper my entire home with the voluminous amounts of printables and doodles that enter our doorway Monday through Friday, September through June.

I was kidding about the kindergarten teachers, of course. I love, love, love and deeply respect them. And I love seeing my children express themselves artistically. But the extensive use of paper does drive me nuts.

When doing crafts at home, may I suggest going paperless? Or at least recycle paper by creating a bin of paper that is clean on one side for kids to draw, doodle and play games on. If you are interested in crafts that don’t require the use of clean sheets of paper, consider the following activities.

1. Make a mosaic out of scraps of broken tiles, pictures from old magazines, paper scraps, odd cards from board games that are no longer played with. Potential material options are limitless.

2. Instead of using paper, how about making your own recycled paper and holiday cards, using ingredients such as newspaper, junk mail, paper scraps and dried flowers?

3. Check out resourcefulschools.org to learn how to make a kite, woven placemats, book covers and more out of old paper bags.

4. Before dumping items into the trash or recycle containers at home, consider if there’s any potential artistic use for them. A milk container could become a bird feeder. Can you see that baby jar as a snow globe or a paperweight? For more ideas on turning trash into art, check out The Imagination Factory’s Trash Matcher.

Read more: Crafts & Hobbies, Family, crafts, kids, paperless, recycle

By Terri Hall-Jackson, contributing writer, Care 2

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are solely those of the author and may not reflect those of
Care2, Inc., its employees or advertisers.

KS G.

2:42AM PDT on Mar 26, 2011

Thanks for the article.

send a green star

11:52AM PST on Jan 25, 2011

ah thanks I already went through the kids-eco craft, but now I have some more :) I think I might send this one to my friend who is a teacher.

Monica D.

4:09PM PST on Mar 3, 2010

You make some good comments about the volume of paper being used. Seriously, perhaps kindergartens (and schools) should change the way they do things, to be more environmentally friendly. I agree with Pam Rhia - perhaps kids should bring more used materials.

4:05PM PST on Mar 3, 2010

Thank you for this. I encourage everyone interested in recycling and reusing to join the group Recycle and Reuse, on Care2 at http://www.care2.com/c2c/group/reuserecycle .

Melly R.

2:20PM PST on Feb 3, 2010

Thanks for sharing!

veronika p.

5:51PM PST on Dec 26, 2009

Great article. I plan to teach kindergarden and I am always looks for great, green ideas. Thanks.

Jamie L.

7:12AM PDT on Jul 26, 2009

Thanks Terri!

Amelia S.

2:24PM PDT on Jul 25, 2009

Great article, we used to make alot of crafts with egg cartons, ice cream bar sticks . You can use the egg cartons to be mini planters to get your seeds started off also milk cartons do well also. Thanks for the advice .

RC S.

8:17PM PDT on Jul 24, 2009

"Catch them young for constructive ventures" is an excellent idea and several options narrated by Terri are praise worthy.Thanks Terri.

5:36AM PDT on Jul 24, 2009

AS our world tries to conserve resources, I agree in class rooms, even with the computer age, we still see lots of paper used by students and teachers. I think your ideas about re-using things such as milk cartons, and other containers is awesome. Plus, by getting the students involved in bringing them from home, whether it be an empty egg container, jars, lids, possibly used greeting cards, and allow the kids to also use their imagination of what they could bring to school that could be re-used for something wonderful and crafty! What an incredible way to teach our youngest children about living greener....