Recycled Art

Recycling and repurposing is something that I love to do, so this project was right up my alley!  I loved the creative spin they took to turn a smashed pop can into a fun fish.  Also, it tied in so nicely with talking about recycling and the importance of protecting our environment.  Supplies for this project included a crushed pop can, paint, construction paper, and googly eyes.  Some objectives of the project were to have two patterns and to use at least three different colors.  First, I painted my can black and white stripes. While we were letting our pop cans dry, we created a recycled bottle cap mural for our fish to hang in front of.  After my can dried, I glued on the googly eye and fins.  My final step was to add the dotted design to the fins and write my name on the back.

A way to extend this project would be to use the plastic bottles from the bottle caps to create a Chihuly Chandelier.  This project would be a great way to continue to learn about recycling and to use up all the materials from the previous project.  The students would use a variety of colored sharpies to color striped patterns on their bottles.  After they are completely covered, they would cut off the bottom of their bottle and then continue to cut a spiral all the way to the top of the bottle.  The spirals would then be situated together to form one collective chandelier that could be hung in a shared space in the school!