Recycle, Reduce, and Reuse

All teachers feel the crunch of these tough economic times.  I've tried to limit what items I purchase with my own money.  There are just so many really useful things that can make our lives easier as teachers.  From IKEA, to the famous Target Dollar Spot, to the great penny deals at Office Max and Staples, the small items that teachers purchase can really add up to make expensive bills.

I am making an effort to go green (somewhat) in my classroom.  I want to reduce waste and reuse items.  I began by trying to find items for my classroom by "shopping" in our house and storage.  My classroom had some recess equipment that I knew would need to be contained in some way, shape, or form.  I found this green tub from one of my sister's college days.  I used some leftover vinyl and my mother's Cricut machine to personalize the tub. 

Teachers (especially kindergarten teachers) are hoarders.  Let's just get that out in the open.  There's always something that can be used again or in a different way.  I saved all of the crayon stubs from the last time I taught kindergarten.... three years ago.  My mother and I sorted all of those little itty bitty pieces of crayons into a muffin tin and made some cool, multicolor crayons.  My next attempt with "crayon making" will be to create the crayons in fun candy molds.  

This next picture needs a caption to tell the story.  This brown wrapped package contains 100 brown paper bags. You know, the perfect size for paper bag puppets, mini books, and just perfect for the kindergarten teacher/hoarder.  Any time I wanted bags during my first year of teaching, I would go to the dollar store or WalMart to purchase them.  One of the veteran kindergarten teachers on my team shared her secret with me.... which I shall share with you.  Go to your neighborhood ABC store (if you're in VA) and ask the friendly salesman if they could donate paper bags to your classroom.  It works!  Apparently, if you call the main office, they even have coloring books that they will send you for free.

We are also saving and reusing plastic bags in our classroom.  This plastic bag holder is just right (purchased at IKEA for a small fee) but I have also used an empty tissue box to store plastic bags.  There are always things that need to be sent home in a plastic bag...  I'll let you use your imagination to fill in the blanks.

Go Green in Kindergarten!