I've always been a fan of recycling, self-creation, and creativity. What better way to infuse the three than instructional materials! I like to take items from everyday life and create instructional materials that kids/people can relate to. Students tend to like aesthetically pleasing materials versus worksheets. For example:
1. Sonics for Phonics
I have always loved Sonic and its treasure of delicious beverage choices. So I always seemed to be surrounded by half-consumed or empty styrofoam route 44s! I wondered how I could use this refuse to teach kids. Dunt dunt da duh...Sonics for Phonics! By using a Sonic glass holder and 4 styrofoam cups you magically have a great sorting instrument for many teaching topics. (Letter sounds, capital/lower case letters, words with various blends, words with various short vowels, etc....then I expanded to grammar components...sorting nouns, verbs, adjectives, etc.
All for the price of a happy hour drink, that you know you are going to buy anyway! Delicious!
2. Reading is a Snap
When I couldn't get my hands on a Sonic beverage, I found my hands around a Snapple tea. The interesting thing about Snapple (glass bottle) lids is that they have unusual facts printed on them. I found that letting kids sort through the lids and find a fact that they were interested in was a great way to let students discover and research on their own. I would keep the 6 pack bottle cardboard container and placed a bunch of the lids inside. I then created a simple folder to hold materials for the activity. On the left side of the folder, I placed the instructions for the activity and on the right side of the folder I placed some fun colored paper for the students to record/write on. This activity was a snap for both teacher and students! Snap!
3. A Piece of the Story
Who doesn't love some pie?! Goodness knows I do...and so do your kids. Everyone can relate to eating pizza right? So I thought I must find a way to work a pizza box into my classroom! I used my "throw away" boxes to teach Story Elements. (You can actually find this activity in my TeacherPayTeacher Store). Yummy Activity!
4. Word Families
My husband and I look forward to some delicious breakfast burritos on a weekly basis...therefore, we recycle egg cartons like fiends! Once again, I found myself asking the question...How can I use my trash to teach? It came to me...I can teach word families (onset/rime, phonograms)! The carton itself is just a clever storage bin for my "egg" word families. Each of the 12 compartments hold a "rime". I would have a bunch of words printed on egg shape paper with words of 12 different word families to sort into the 12 compartments. Kids loved this activity! It can be introduced/used in small group time then placed in a Center for students to use individually. (This activity can be found on TeachersPayTeachers, it is named "Word Families"). Fun!
