If you want to turn your household trash into decorative treasure, let your preschooler help. Your preschooler can use reused, recycled and repurposed items to create works of art. From scraps of paper or fabric to expired food, your preschooler can use his creativity to create craft projects that can be displayed around your home, given as gifts or used to feed the birds.
Pin Cushion
Take those glass baby food jars out of the trash and save them for your preschooler to make a simple pin cushion. Your preschooler will need the jar, a small strip of discarded wrapping paper, ribbon, cotton balls, fabric and a rubber band. Have him place the wrapping paper inside the jar with the decorative side facing out. Add the cotton balls to the jar. Place a circular piece of scrap fabric over the jar and fasten it with the rubber band. Use ribbon to cover the rubber band. If you don’t have any wrapping paper to recycle, use a scrap piece of paper, magazine or newsprint as an alternative.
Cracker House
A single serve milk carton and expired food can be your preschooler’s basic building blocks for a house from crackers. Affix broken graham crackers or other flat, square crackers to the side and tops of the carton and cover them with icing or frosting. Use old sprinkles, candy or cereal that is ready to be discarded to decorate the house.
Bird Feeder
With a stale or discarded unfinished bagel, a piece of string or yarn, peanut butter, vegetable shortening and birdseed, your preschooler can create a bird feeder. Tie a piece of string around the bagel so it can hang. Spread a mixture of 2/3 peanut butter and 1/3 shortening all over the bagel. The shortening keeps the peanut butter from sticking in the bird’s gullet, notes the Solid Waste Agency of Northern Cook County. Roll the coated bagel in birdseed, and then have your preschooler hang the bagel outside.
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