I was thinking last night about the growing cost of buying school supplies for your classroom and started thinking about things around the house that you could collect to use next year.
Toilet rolls
Toilet rolls can be used in hundreds of different ways for art projects during the year. We made these owls in the resource room 2 years ago and the children loved it!
There are so many great ideas from Crafting in a Green World here.
Here’s lots of other ideas from Pinterest.
Bottle Caps
Another great thing to collect – milk cartons, plastic bottles from water/coke etc. I used to ask my mam to collect these for me too and when I’d arrive home she’d have a box full!
- Infants; Maths – sort by colour/size
- Infants; Maths – write numbers on the bottle caps and the children can organise them from low to high or high to low.
- Infants; Maths – matching. See more here.
- Infants; Developing fine motor skills (This could also be used in the resource room)
- Lots of art ideas too – eyes/ body of an animal/ printing etc.
Cardboard boxes
These can also be used in different ways in your classroom. A cardboard box could become the ‘Worry Monster’ or could be used to store art materials – wool for example.
I also used two large shoe boxes to create my Language Box and Maths Box last year! Larger boxes could be used as props for your school play.
This was our ‘Dressing Up Box’ for our school play last year.
Wrapping Paper
Keep wrapping paper from presents – it can be used in lots of different ways. I like to use it to cover boxes so they look appealing/ interesting. It can be used for craft/ art work too. Could be used with a cardboard box as a construction project.
Yoghurt pots/Butter tub etc.
These can be used for storing stationery – markers, pencils etc. They could also be used in art for construction projects. They could also be used for planting in SESE.
Just use sticky paper to decorate the boxes and make them colourful and interesting!
