Sustainable Resources from the Op Shop!

What you see here, is $11 worth of wooden bowls from The Salvation Army op shop. I love op-shops. I love op-shop shopping. I seriously do! Aside from rehoming items that would otherwise be trash and supporting organizations that support others in need ... I love the style, the originality, the funkiness of what you can find! Even the table underneath the bowls was op-shop fodder! It was $40 from St Vincents and in reasonable pristine condition (until one of my exes put something stupid on it and made a great big gounge - which annoys the stuffing out of me (depsite using a wood crayon!)).

I am using these bowls in my photo shoots and I have used others at my last job to display items like insect and animal figurines as well as natural embellishments: seed pods, leaves, twigs, stones etc.

I now have a box full of wooden bowls - some from garage sales, most from St. Vinnies or Salvos - most of which were between $1-5 each ... In this photo, the large bowl was $5, the double was $3 and the others were all $1 ... and this was one trip to one store.

They also have lots of baskets available in all shapes and sizes, but I'm not buying them! I'm running out of room at home to store these things!

Why are we displaying items in plastic containers when we can use, re-use, recycle items that are so rich and warm in colour, and support a more sustainable life? They just look lovely!!!

PLUS as a bonus, you can link your provisions to sustainable practices which ties in to the NQS and the EYLF ... See? See what I did there?

Op-Shop Wooden bowls = NQSEYLF friendly!

In fact op-shop anything is good for us and our world and our practice!

So there you have it!

Peace Out!

© Teacher’s Ink. 2012

Creative & Innovative Resource Design!

Home Corner BLING!

I like creating things for work. I really like being innovative and creative. Something that I have done for years and years – is make stuffed food boxes. I stuff them with shredded paper and then tape them securely shut. You can then use adhesive contact to wrap them in. This way they last even longer and are less likely to be opened by curious fingers and minds. I often stuff them =with= the children because this way – they know what’s inside and are less likely to investigate.

I have also made food bottles for years ... I have found at Kmart – a set of 3 small twist top jars which are BPA free plastic for $2 ... so a bargain I think! I’ve filled them with some food items (labelled on the bottom with the date) and then glued them closed with my small hot glue gun (put the glue around the inside of the lid and a little up the thread – then carefully twist on – wait til they dry and presto! Real food items! I am still toying with creating name labels with the bottles. I might, but then again, I might not!

Also I have been making food cans ... this is a =new= idea of mine! I had made them years ago using papier-mâché cans – but it was toooooooo much work ... I’m  lazy and need ease and convenience these days ... buy a smooth edge can-opener ($5 from Coles) which cuts the lid off a can but leaves a, yes you guessed it, smooth edge! Run your finger along it carefully to make sure it is smooth! Then I just put on a food label – then contact the label and then fold the overlap into the inside of the can just for extra protection. I leave the cans open - why not? They can then use them to feed people (I had a little not quite 2 year old feed me some cat food the other day, YUM!). Or they can fill them with spare parts (like bottle lids etc).

Some of these items are either “free” or easily affordable. They are made using items that might otherwise make it into the rubbish/recycle cycle with only one use under their belt ... this way, you can re-use and re-purpose items, then when they have lived out their second life with you, you can then recycle them! (minus the plastic of course).

The food bottles will quite possibly last for YEARS ... I have had some last for 10 years before I left them at a job ... It was time to start new. And I’m really impressed with the Kmart jars. Perfect size for little hands. And they really aid in imagination, are real items that they might be able to relate to – and it helps them connect food with food in different states of being (i.e. dried rice, dried beans, etc).

Also, something that we need to all consider - especially in light of the NQS - and their emphasis on sustainability and environmental awareness and the environment - this is the perfect thing for your service to do! If you do it with the children - you are also empowering them, discussing it with them, and helping them to be capable and competent contributors to their own learning space and materials.

So that is my newest sharing with you ... Go forth and create and innovate! AND feel free to share your ideas!

T.ink.

© Teacher’s Ink. 2012    All rights reserved.

Creative w/ Natural Provisions

Jazz things up with some natural bling!

Creative Presentation of Resources

It seriously doesnt have to cost a fortune ... It will cost more than the plastic baskets at the $2 shop mind you, but they will last forever and they look warm and beautiful and inviting and they are natural materials to boot!

This set of wooden bowls + a wooden square plate I forgot to add to the photo cost $20. There is a little crack in the large wooden bowl, but that could be filled up easily enough with some filler and then sanded back then oiled. They are so warm and beautiful.

So even if you displayed plastic animal figurines in the bowls, at least they are presented in a beautiful way.

~*~ Indoor Gardens ~*~

Gardening ... I love gardening. I love nature and plants and animals. I set up a terrarium with my preschool group earlier this year. We used an old plastic aquarium. The kids really got into it! Unfortunately it didnt have an air-tight lid which meant it needed to be sprayed alot - and since I took some leave - everyone forgot and many of the plants died.

We also experimented growing wheat seeds in jars which was very successful. You could see the wheat grass, but you could also see the roots in the soil. I found that idea on the internet. The children then took it in a different direction and I remember Miss K suggested that we plant them in the garden ... we did, and they grew. Master X suggested that we grow them in water ... we did, and they didn’t grow. But it was a lesson learned.

I learned a lot and it didn’t cost much. It took time. It took thought. It took planning. It took minimal resources. It’s about being resource*FULL.

Acutally I think back to one of my managers - she wanted the lunch tables to look pretty ... with the three to four serving bowls that the current cook was giving us at each table it wasnt possible with the space we had on the tables and I didnt see the point of putting something on the table that would only get removed right away ... but I was just thinking - jars with plants in them would have been the perfect alternative to the vases with flowers that were suggested. Whether as jars of wheat grass or spider plants or ferns ... I'll keep this in mind for my next employment committment (if I make one!).

Here are some photos of the terrariums I made for myself at home ... They are pretty simple ... just google image "terrarium" and you will get so many awesome ideas! I found a great deal of inspiration for this through google ... I =heart= google.

Here is my assistant ... responsible for quality control and being generally curious about everything.

I used spider plants because they were accessible (i.e. in my garden) and they were small and affordable! I figured if the plants didnt make it, then I could replace them easily enough without disturbing the substrates.

So yeah ... it was pretty straight forward and easy ... I havent added little special things yet like painted stones or trinkets or little figureines ... I thought I would save that for the larger one I will do ... I found some jars at The Reject Shop for $5 with lids - including a funky cookie jar which was rippled ... not sure if it was the best option for a terrarium because the plants would be all distorted ... I ended up buying little mini tea sets  and a bird tote instead! But there are options out there that are super affordable! All the gardening materials I purchased at Bunnings. My assistant was found 12 months ago as a 12 week old kitten on the street at midnight by a neighbour. I'd be lost without him.

If you dont have a space in which you can garden - I know that some services don't have access to gardens - this is a way for you to do something on a small scale inside. And because they are enclosed, they are relatively easy to maintain - i.e. they don't dry out quickly.

If the plants do die, or fail to thrive, this is the time to have those conversations with the children about why that might be happening! Then you are really tackling hypothesizing and problem solving and really engaging with the natural materials!

Now in regards to the EYLF ...

"Outcome 2: Children are connected with and contribute to their world: Children become socially responsible and show respect for the environment:

= explore, infer, predict and hypothesise in order to develop an increased understanding of the interdependence between land, people, plants and animals

= show growing appreciation and care for natural and constructed environment

= explore relationships with other living and non-living things and observe, notice and respond to change

= develop an awareness of the impact on human activity on environments and the interdependence of living things."

Educators can promote this through:

·        " provide children with access to a range of natural materials in their environment

·         model respect, care and appreciation for the natural environment

·         find ways of enabling children to care for and learn from the land"

EYLF, 2009 pp. 29

T.ink.

Natural VS Commercial

So one of the big ideas I'm exploring is how to use what we have around us rather than ruining our earth by ordering things from companies ... I mean I do love rainbow matchsticks ... don't get me wrong, they are useful and vibrant and the like BUT they are trees that were cut down ... then they were processed to be little match stick shapes, then they were dyed, then they were packaged, then they were shipped to a warehouse, where they wait to be sold ... and again, shipped out ...

So as I was pottering around in my garden and checking out my giant pile of clippings and prunings etc and I was wondering about how it can be used (other than be chipped down and sold as mulch/compost by the company that buys the waste from council) ...

So why not mix it up? Just don't take away all the colour in one go ... but look at ways of incorporating natural materials which are FREE and local and easily made? I just grabbed some landscaping pebbles from my garden, used the May Bush twigs which were at hand, plus playdough with no dye added, glass beads as well as the coloured match sticks ... 

Here are some landscaping rocks from Bunnings, thicker branches or twigs from the May Bush, drift wood (which I'd had for some hermit crabs who have since passed away), different leaves, and the landscaping pebbles ... All of these things you can either buy quite inexpensively ($2.49 per bag for the rocks) or find around the place...

There are some awesomely interesting seed pods out there too ... these came from a fire wheel tree... I wore gloves and long sleeves to scrape out the seeds as they have little prickley hairs which were irritating to me - so this is not a project I'd do with the children. I wore jeans as well and shook everything out and then washed it! But the seed pods last a really long time in the room for play with blocks etc so they are worth the effort.

I've previously used gum nuts - there is a tree in front of my parents home which drops gum nuts all the time - easily swept up and placed along with the twigs, sticks, rocks, seed pods, and pebbles. I should go and harvest some more when its time!

I can't post any pictures of what my old kids did with the play dough and natural materials ... but I can describe what some of the ideas were ... some made animals using the sticks for legs, others flattened out the dough and made artistic patterns with the nuts on the outside. Some created balls of dough which they then placed on top of sticks were were then stick into a base of dough - flowers. Others made the ever famous cookies and cakes with the dough.

I've also put a display of natural materials in block corner where the kids used the large rocks in their play. Mainly as additions to their block work. I guess you could call them embellishments! I like that term, I think its one I will use more often!

Embellish!

T.ink