While waste is a serious concern, it has also given all of us an opportunity to be more creative. This easy activity can be a great way to introduce our children to the concept of upcycling by creating wealth from waste. Let’s get started!
Resources needed per student:
Plastic Bottles
Scissors
Markers
Paint & Brush
Time Needed:
45 minutes (additional time required for drying)
Instructions for students:
Step 0:
Learn about upcycling and the serious problems faced while dealing with waste.
Step 1:
Ideate the design of the pen stand to be made using the plastic bottle.
Step 2:
Cut the plastic bottle as per the intended design.
Step 3:
Paint and wait for it to dry. It’s preferable to use oil-based paints such as enamel paint to ensure better coating and longevity. Oil-based paints also take longer to dry.
Step 4:
Add more details to make it look more interesting and start using.
Instructions for Teachers:
Explain waste segregation
This activity is a good opportunity to introduce children to waste segregation. As a teacher, you can push the student to further think about how plastic is different from paper and how their recycling method changes. Ensure that the students use correct bins to separate their wastes. You can also set up a separate bin for plastic alone to ensure proper segregation.
Explain the issues with plastic shreds
While working with plastic bottles, it is highly likely that students generate lots of plastic shreds. Even before beginning the activity, emphasise the harmful effects of plastic and encourage them to generate as less waste as possible during the activity. If you’re using a point system to incentivize children in your classroom, you can also offer extra points to the students who generate less waste.
Push to think creatively
As the activity is very simple and takes less time, it can be used as a space to push the children to think more creatively. You can include prompts like ‘Your pen stand should tell a story’ to kickstart the thinking process.
Have fun making and share the works of your students with the hashtag #projectprayogshala to get featured!