Fun on a Rainy Day: Kids' Crafts from Household Waste

“Stickers!” my daughter cried, crawling into the middle of the table.

My children were restless.  It was late afternoon, another soggy day after a week of endless rain.  I had already reprimanded the youngest two for infractions ranging from climbing out of the car seat (my daughter) to screeching at ear-piercing decibels (my son).  It was time to try something different. 

So, I transformed our kitchen table into a junk pile: old magazines, toilet paper rolls, various dry pastas, random craft supplies from previous school projects.

“Make art,” I told them.  “Anything you want.”  After handing my children glue, tape, and scissors, I took a step back. 

Much to my amazement, the kids dove in with excitement and started to fight over the empty tin cans.  Soon, each child proudly displayed their handiwork to me: three maracas and one coffee filter beanie.

Creating art out of discarded materials?  It’s a growing trend. 

“We love to use recycled products at our school,” said Chase Jackson, a Pre-K teacher at the ELF School Too in Damascus.  “Not only is it good for the planet, but most materials are easy to come by in the average household and it keeps costs down.  It also shows children how to look at things in a different way and use their imagination.” 

One of Jackson’s favorite projects from last year involved repurposing plastic water bottles.   

“I had the children smear glue all over the outside of a small water bottle.  They then pulled cotton balls apart and stuck them to the glue.  I used Q-tips cut in half as the four legs, and glued a small, white ball to the top of the bottle for the head, and drew on a face.  When laid on its side, it became an adorable, fuzzy sheep.”    

Jackson loves using plastic bottles, toilet roll tubes and tissue boxes when crafting with her students.  If you plan to purchase new supplies with kids’ crafts in mind, she recommends selecting items for their versatility. 

“To buy a supply with just one use can be wasteful,” said Jackson.  “Try and get basic supplies — like pipe cleaners, pom poms, beads, buttons, felt – that can really be manipulated and put to use in many, many ways.”

Seeing the enthusiasm that my kids have for creating recycled art, I am thinking that I’d better set aside the discards from this experiment for future use on rainy days.  Maybe I should even save up some more trash!

Jackson feels the same way.  “I love to just save any items that could be of use in the future,” she said.  “I have huge bins in my basement that I keep everything in.  Then, when the time comes, I can go through my saved items and create projects.  It’s time and money saver!”

And it’s especially convenient for rainy days.