Art Project: Mr. Recyclable Bug – Craft
Tune to "Open Shut them, Open Shut Them"

Teacher should make her Recyclable bug before the children come to daycare today. Make a poster that says "catch the bug, Please Recycle" underneath.

The caption "catch The Bug, Please Recycle" is referring to when people get sick and they say I have a virus or a "bug" and these types of "bugs" spread quickly from one person to another, and then everyone is getting sick, well we are hoping that everyone will catch "the recycle bug" and help to make our planet a lot greener!

To begin, teacher will hold up her Mr. Recyclable bug or attach him to the wall and show him to the children at craft time today. Explain to the children that this is Mr. Recyclable Bug and he looks for garbage that can be recycled and he collects it and carries it along to the recycling center, but it’s a lot of work and he is getting tired and there is way too much garbage for him to do this all by himself and he could really use some help from them.

Ask the children how they can help Mr. Recyclable Bug?

Explain to them that if they recycle glass, paper, cans, cardboard and other recyclable items they will help Mr. Recyclable bug he wont have to do it all by himself anymore and he wont be so tired, he has to find garbage day and night and right now and he hardly gets any sleep and every time he thinks he has found all the garbage, guess what! He finds more the next day and that makes him very sad. But when he sees you recycle that makes him very happy and he doesn't have to work so hard picking up all the trash, so let’s try and make Mr. Recyclable bug happy by recycling our trash!

Ask the children if they recycle at home, if not, remind them to tell mom and dad about Mr. Recyclable bug and how happy it would make him if everyone recycled at least one thing each day such as newspaper, glass bottles, metal cans, cardboard, etc. Now have the children make their own Mr. Recycle Bug You will need: Cardboard cereal boxes and cut out large circles from the boxes and have the children paint the circles any color they would like, hang them onto an outside clothesline or near an open window to dry quickly, after their circles dry, have the children glue on recyclables items to make their very own Mr. Recyclable bug.

Have them glue on items such as clean and washed out tuna cans, large jar covers from peanut butter jars, mayo jars, plastic yogurt covers, toilet paper rolls, scraps of newspaper, or scraps pieces of paper from flyers, popsicle sticks, pieces of egg cartons or anything else that you would normally throw away to teach the children many items we throw away each day could be recycled.

Learning time: Tap The Circle

You will need: Cardboard cereal box or cracker box, scrap pieces of party streamers (crepe paper) or other types of scraps of paper, yarn, hole punch, 2 small milk cartons, packing tape, paper towel roll.

Circle: you will need a cardboard cereal box or a large cracker box and cut it into a large circle and glue on some pieces scraps of paper such as tissue paper, party streamers, construction paper or any other kinds of scraps paper that you have in your craft area. After you have finished gluing the circle, set it aside to dry. Then you will need to hole punch the top of the circle and attach a piece of string or yarn and hang it from the ceiling.

Cube (die): You will need to make a cube (die), you can make one from two small clean washed out milk cartons. Cut the milk cartons in half, and push the two open ends together, tightly, and cover with squares of cardstock paper and write on low number such as 1, 2, 4 1, 2 onto the cube, you should now have a number on each side. To make the cube (die) durable cover it with clear packing tape.

Activity: Have the children sit in a circle and take turns shaking the cube (die) if they shake a four, teacher will pass them the paper towel roll and then will go over and tap the circle (which is hanging from the ceiling) four times. Teacher and all the children will count out the taps, 1, 2, 3, 4. Now have the next child shake the cube (die), continue until everyone has had a turn.

Letter/Number: Calendar Number Match Up

You will need: Calendars with the numbers on them, such as the calendar pages from January, February and March, metal cans, craft sticks and tape or glue.

Directions: You will need several calendar pages (ask parents to recycle their old calendar pages by bringing them in) and cut out the squares with the numbers 1 – 10 on them.

Glue one of each number onto a craft stick. We found that on our calendar all the numbers were very small so we wrote the same number onto the squares with a marker in very large numbers. (See picture above)

To make the cans look nicer you may want to cut some strips of cardstock paper and wrap around it around the can like a blanket and tape it. Then we recycled our mail by cutting out squares from the backs of the envelopes that we put onto the cans to write the numbers 1, 2, 3 10. Put one number onto each square and tape the squares onto the cans. (see picture above)

Next, teacher will need to set the cans in a row starting with the number 1, 2, 3 10 Lay all the craft sticks face down onto the floor.

Activity: Have all the children sit in a circle around the calendar number craft sticks and have them take turns picking one calendar number craft stick from the floor and holding it up and telling you what calendar number is on the craft stick. Have them match the craft stick by number to the can with the same number, and place the craft stick inside the can with the same number, repeat with the rest of the children.

Special Activity: Lets Play Golf!

You will need: Some large sheets of newspaper, paper towel rolls, toilet paper rolls, clear packing tape and small to medium sized sturdy boxes.

This is an outside activity.

Golf Activity: Show the children how they can hit the paper ball with their toilet paper golf club, and try to hit the paper ball (swing like their playing mini golf) and try to get the paper ball into one of the boxes on the playground, once they get the ball into one of the boxes have them remove the paper ball and try to golf it over to another box.

Golf Club: To make the golf club you will need a paper towel roll and two toilet paper rolls. You will need to cut a hole in the center of the toilet paper roll, trace around the paper towel roll onto the center of the toilet paper roll and cut out and carefully push the paper towel roll inside, and then if you find the golf clubs are not long enough, you will need another toilet paper roll or paper towel roll and carefully squeeze it into the end of the paper towel roll, it will be very snug and a bit hard to push in, after you get the toilet paper roll pushed into the paper towel roll go around it with clear packing tape so it will stay together.

Directions: Have the children help you squish up a few large sheets of newspaper to look like paper balls and then take the paper balls, golf clubs and boxes all outside. Lay the boxes randomly around the playground and not too close to each other.

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