Recycle Bin Crafts for Bored Kids: Homemade Hats for Learning Centers

So this Covid 19 quarantine is getting long, huh? A lot of you parents got thrust into the role of teacher unexpectedly. If you're homeschooling children, maybe you need my teacher mama first aid kit, with quick, easy CHEAP ideas to perk up the school day. 

Just in time for earth Earth Day on April 22, how about recycle bin trash craft? Homeschoolers and teachers, your recycle bin in your best craft supply resource. Let kids repurpose, recycle and reuse household stuff in science projects and eco-friendly crafts.  

Today's recycled trash crafts feature homemade hats for kids! The prototype was developed by our oldest daughter at 20 months old. We kept her toys sorted in recycled 5 pound peanut butter pails. One day, Little Miss emptied one, plopped it on her head, tucked handle under chin and voila—an instant helmet. Then she proceeded to saddle up and ride baby brother like her noble steed! I removed the bucket handle for her safety and her from brother for his. 

But I realized what really cool homemade hats for kids can be made with a little repurpose and reuse. Let kids sort through your recycle bin for plastic ice cream buckets, butter tubs and coffee canisters. Organize by size.  This is a great way to teach preschool sorting, measurement math and Earth Day environmental science. 

Make helmets for hands-on social studies crafts. Repurpose and reuse recycle bin milk jugs as knight's helmets. Remove handle, cut a flap to use as a helmet visor. Cut a piece of plastic and attach with brads to make a visor flap. Wrap in aluminum foil for an armored helmet. Explore the history of helmets and armor with these free printable coat of arms activities from Pinterest. 

Teach STEM lesson plans making homemade hats for robots, soldiers, aliens, animals, astronauts. Make homemade crowns for kings and queens and princesses (cut both ends out to make cylinder shape and decorate. Here are free printable paper crown patterns too. 

Make cone-shaped medieval lady hats for kids by rolling a square of paper in a funnel shape. Trim edge even. Staple recycled crepe paper streamers to hat. Cut decorations from recycle bin stuff. Repurpose and reuse old headgear in cute homemade hats for kids costumes. Repurpose and reuse silk flowers, fabric scraps, ribbons, yarn, buttons, appliques, and faux gems as decorations for your recycled trash crafts. 

Habitat Science Tubs and Preschool Learning Center Activities

Preschool and Elementary Science Learning Center Ideas for Habitat Study Learning occurs best when it's interactive. Bring hands-on, cross-curricular activities to every preschool classroom learning center. Studying different countries, cultures or habitats in your classroom? Here are hands-on science center activities. 

Montessori type learning centers focus on hands-on child-led mastery learning, individual work stations and play as work activities. Activities in learning centers aim for mastery learning through exploration and task completion. Montessori science learning centers are also called sensory or sensorial learning areas. Here's a system for portable exploratory science tubs with task-oriented science experiments and activities for mastery learning.

Montessori learning centers are organized, precise and minimal. Instead of a jumble of toys, there are specific ordered learning materials with task-oriented goals. Children work in individual work stations instead of desks or tables. These are usually portable mats rolled out on the floor. Portable unit-based science tubs work well. Materials in science tubs may be preset on stationary learning mats and children rotate through learning centers to complete activities. Or children may select science tubs, bring them to their mat work stations where they interact with materials to accomplish educational tasks.

To create exploratory science tubs, you'll need small plastic boxes with lids, baskets and different science unit materials. Stacking boxes or drawers in a rolling cart work well too. You might also use zippered plastic bags for individual science units. You will arrange materials by content area. When you're studying a particular content area, you'll remove materials from drawer or box and place in baskets. This makes learning materials more appealing and approachable.

Themes for exploratory science tubs include: magnets, matters, animal classification, mammals, reptiles, air, water, weather, measurement, polymers, plants, rocks and minerals, chemistry, seeds and seed carriers, feathers, electricity, atoms, food, bubbles, bugs, spiders, electronics. Place materials to explore in science tubs. Add several related follow up tasks for mastery learning--flashcards, worksheets, matching games. Children can do mastery learning tasks in science journals for follow up.

Make available tools for exploratory science: microscope, slides, magnifying glass, tweezers, magnifying box, telescope, gram balance scale, ruler, protractor, measuring tape. On the top surface of the plastic science tubs shelf, draw outlines of tools so children know where to place tools when finished. You could also make a pegboard for them to hang tools. Children perform exploratory science tasks and then return materials to original places so other children can use them

The Cove Dolphin Slaughter Documentary and other Ecology movies for Earth Month

Earth Day, formerly called Arbor Day, is celebrated on April 22. Spring manifests itself in a big way in April, so the entire month has come to be known as Earth Month. During this month, you can learn more about geology and earth science with these environmental films and movies about ecology. Explore earth-safe and not-so-earth-safe practices. Discover how local habits have global impacts.

"Crude: The Real Price of Oil" (2009): In "Crude" filmmaker Joe Berlinger profiles the "Amazon Chernobyl" case, in which 30,000 indigenous Ecuadorean Rain Forest inhabitants took on oil mogul, Chevron. This film won several dozen awards including Best Green Film and Best Documentary. This film resonates with oil spill victims and those who oppose Big Oil.

"The Cove" Louie Psihoyos goes behind-the-scenes with a camera team to uncover atrocities wrought by the Japanese fishing industry. Psihoyos captures rare, secret footage of dolphin slaughter and harmful mercury poisoning oceans, waterways and the ecosystem. The Cove won an Oscar for Best Documentary and the Sundance Film Festival Audience Award. Parents and teachers should view "The Cove" before showing the film to children. Graphic scenes of dolphin slaughter may be too disturbing for children under 12.

"Blackfish" This documentary exposed abuse of orca "killer whales" at SeaWorld and other animal amusement parts. It tells the story of Tilikum, a captive orca whale who killed his trainer. 

"Soylent Green" (1973): In the style of Aldous Huxley's "Brave New World," Richard Fleischer's science fiction thriller explores a future world in which the population explosion is depleting all the world's food sources. Scientists discover a mysterious miracle food and call it "soylent green." No one knows what it's made from, nor cares so long as it fills hungry bellies. Then a reporter discovers the horrible truth.

"No Impact Man" (2009): This chronicles a family that transitions from a fast-paced New York City consumer lifestyle to become the perfect green family. Their goal is to leave zero carbon footprint and no environmental impact for one year. Colin Beaven is the "No Impact Man."

"Dirty Business: Clean Coal and the Battle for our Energy Future" (2009): In this documentary film, the Center for Investigative Reporting demonstrates the dangers inherent in a world addicted to coal power.

Free Printable Biology Worksheets and Science Lesson Plans

Parents, do you get a little queasy when your child tells you she needs help with her science project? Does the school science fair give you panic attacks? There's always that cool dad who comes up with awesome science projects that leave your little bean plant looking pathetic. Then there's that creative mom who makes other parents look like losers. Well fear not--here's a list of free printable science experiments, science projects and science crafts to knock that science fair out of the universe! Teach your kiddo valuable science lessons with these STEM activities (STEM activities cover science, technology, engineering and math--what was called in the old days science experiments).

Home Education Resources is a really comprehensive website with tons of free printable science projects and STEM activities. lesson plans and learning materials for teachers and homeschoolers. This page has 24 free printable science experiments for third or fourth graders on up. You can use them for younger grades if the instructions are read and explained to the students. There are experiments on color, light, physics, forces and motion and health activities. Use for a basis for science fair projects.

TSL Books has over forty free printable science lesson plans, experiments and STEM activities that could be used as science experiments. Choose from many different concepts: animals, habitats, biomes, plants, seeds, mammals, ocean life, weather, butterflies, five senses, motion, vehicles, fuels, planets, farm animals, whales, savanna life and more. There are cut and paste activities, puzzles, crossword, booklets, matching, coloring pages, mazes and more. Use these materials to assemble a science fair display.

Paper Toys has free printable paper models of vehicles, buildings and artifacts. Print and make these 3D paper crafts to use in science projects for a technology and science fair. This site has even morefree printable paper models to make for engineering science projects. ABC Teach has complete units with free printable science experiments and ideas for science projects. Scholastic has morefree printable science experiments. And Enchanted Learning is always a good source for free printable materials for science projects and STEM activities.

Green Earth Lesson Plans: Dr. Seuss The Lorax

Dr. Seuss celebrates his birthday on March 2. We celebrate Seuss in March with National Reading Month and Read Across America. For good Seuss fun, why not read "Bartholomew and the Oobleck" and make oobleck What's Oobleck? It's Seuss for Goop-Slime-Silly Putty-Gak Splat-Flubber. Those are commercial names. But you can make your own. 

But watch out. Oobleck has a mind of its own as Bartholomew finds out (he's the lad who had hat trouble in Seuss's 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins.") Here are oobleck recipes. Stretchy, noise putty Oobleck (fondly referred to by kids as "farting" putty.) Mix in zippered plastic bag, equal parts liquid laundry starch and white school glue. Liquid laundry starch is located with laundry supplies. A common brand is Sta-Flo. It's a light blue milky substance. Mix with fingers till glue is blended in and there is no tackiness. Kneading makes Oobleck rubbery and bouncy. Galactic glitter Oobleck. Give Oobleck a glam makeover. Add a little glitter to the noise putty recipe. This is the same recipe for Silly Putty or Flubber. Keep fresh in refrigerator stored in plastic bag. Glow in the Dark Oobleck. Make Halloween Oobleck by adding a little glow powder or luminescent fact paint to the Oobleck. Take it outdoors or shine a black light on it. Mystery oozing Oobleck: Blend small amounts of water in powdered cornstarch. The Oobleck moves back and forth between liquid and solid states of matter. It "melts" with warmth of your hands hardens as it cools. Touch and it melts. Like Bartholomew's oobleck it seems to have a life of its own. Mix directly on a table. Spills dry and vacuum up easily. Here are more science recipes and homemade art supplies made f

Preschool Learning Centers: How to structure

The best lesson plans include learning centers with lots of interactives, hands-on activities. Preschool, special needs, gen ed and even homeschool students benefit from learning centers. Here's a simple guide to set up learning centers with inexpensive, recycled, repurposed materials. 

1) Set up cross-curricular learning centers based on units being studied. Include math, science, social studies, literature and technology. 

2)  Each center should include a shelf or basket of books related to unit. Social studies units include books on countries and cultures. DK--Dorling Kindersley makes excellent science reference books and field guides to use in science learning centers. 

3) Manipulatives: Fill learning centers with a variety of hands-on games, crafts, Montessori type flashcards and learning sets appropriate to unit. Science centers include STEM diagrams, charts, experiments and activities. Literature units might include paper dolls and dioramas. Fills social studies learning centers with maps, globes and artefacts. Math centers should have measurement, counting, operations and other math lesson plans. 

4) Preschool centers: There are 4-6 basic learning centers in a preschool classroom. Dramatic play, practical life (house), building, science and gross motor. 

5) Tasks: List tasks to complete in each of the learning centers, according to age. Preschool and young special needs students may just explore with middle school students will have activities to complete. Keep them as open-ended as possible to address HOTS (higher order thinking skills). Also, make lesson plans self-checking for immediate feedback.