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Exploring our world is fun! Abby Brown loves to help kids have fun while learning! In this segment, Abby invites kids to reuse their junk in new and creative ways, and reminds us to recycle when you can find no more new uses for your junk!

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Watch "The Future Forest" (5 min) - turning plastic trash into art! 

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Watch "The Future Forest" (5 min) - turning plastic trash into art! 

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This could inspire you to turn Trash into Treasure for your project this week!

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THE FUTURE FOREST - 3 Tons of plastic waste turned into a colorful forest.

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*This is pulled from the Mystery Science video on "How is plastic made?" which you will watch next week.

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We saw some amazing repurposed art on our trip to Portugal. Charlie wanted to share. This entire rabbit sculpture and mural is made from trash.

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Materials needed:
-feeder body: plastic bottle
-nectar: sugar (1/2 cup) & water (2 cups)
-string/twine
-adult scissors

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Upcycling - This is a way of reusing materials or items rather than throwing them in the trash. This is a type of recycling where a material or object is turned into a better-quality item. When you upcycle, you usually use an object for its original purpose but make it even better by repainting it, adding new features, or make it easier to use. An example could be if someone uses old paint chip samples to create a piece of wall art.

Repurposing - This is another way of reusing materials or items rather than throwing them in the trash. When you repurpose a material, you use it for something totally different than its original use. An example could be when someone uses an old car tire or broken wheelbarrow to create a garden planter.

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Green Toys Video - turning milk jugs into toys! (5 min)

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Green Toys Video - turning milk jugs into toys! (5 min)

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Materials needed:
-empty milk carton
-popsicle sticks
-hot glue gun
-markers
-push pin
-string/twine
-colored construction paper
-bird seed
-other deocorating items

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Full-Time Kid
Make your own birdhouse in this simple project using all household recyclables! Birdwatching is a fantastic outdoors activity, and by adding birdhouses to your backyard you're creating a safe and welcoming place for more birds call home.

Aired: 12/21/16

Rating: NR

Problems Playing Video? Report a Problem |

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Full-Time Kid Make your own birdhouse in this simple project using all household recyclables! Birdwatching is a fantastic outdoors activity, and by adding birdhouses to your backyard you're creating a safe and welcoming place for more birds call home. Aired: 12/21/16 Rating: NR Problems Playing Video? Report a Problem |

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If prompted to log in at Scholastic SuperScience, log in as "student" and use class password: science3
1. This reading level is a bit high, so either have an adult read this or click on "text to speech" feature on the left hand side of the article.
2. Watch the video of the Recycle Orchestra performing

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You might find an old can, a dirty fork, and a scrap of wood at the dump. Or you might find them on Estrella Melgarejo's viola. The 20-year-old plays an instrument made from trash.

Estrella lives in the South American country of Paraguay. She's one of 60 young people in a group called the Recycled Orchestra. All of the orchestra's instruments are made of materials found in a nearby landfill.

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Tunes from Trash Physical Science Article for Students | Scholastic SuperScience Magazine

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You might find an old can, a dirty fork, and a scrap of wood at the dump. Or you might find them on Estrella Melgarejo's viola. The 20-year-old plays an instrument made from trash. Estrella lives in the South American country of Paraguay. She's one of 60 young people in a group called the Recycled Orchestra.

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Materials:

Garbage bags (mix of colors is great)

Masking Tape

Plastic bottle (can substitute cardboard tubes)

Blowdryer with cool setting (or other way to shoot air)

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Introduction: Bag Monsters

Know anyone with a strange phobia of garbage bags? You will soon with your easily makeable, quickly inflatable, highly sensational Bag Monster. This project is inspired by a beautiful idea by artist Joshua Allen Harris where he made three dimensional creatures out of trash bags that inflate with the passing of the NYC subway.

My students (and I) love all things that inflate: bouncy castles, balloons, wacky waving inflatable flailing arm tube people, and more. So this project was a way to tie our passion for all things air-filled with geometry, sewing patterns, design, and making three dimensional objects.

What: Bag Monsters!

Why: Raaaawwwwr!

Concepts: design, geometry, pressure, spatial thinking

Time: ~ 50 minutes minimum (multi-day better)

Cost: ~ $0.20 per monster

Materials:

Garbage bags (mix of colors is great)

Masking Tape

Plastic bottle (can substitute cardboard tubes)

Blowdryer with cool setting (or other way to shoot air)

Tools:

Scissors

Pen and paper

Measuring tape or Ruler (optional)

Let's monster.

Step 1: Design Your Beast

Your beast can be a beauty or downright barbarous, but either way, give it some thought first.

Bag Monsters (at their most basic) are made with an identical front and back. They are taped along the seams with a hole to let in air. They can also have other holes to release air if your bag monster pressure gets to high. Often it is easiest to cut a main body, and add on limbs.

For some thoughts on variations and challenges in design, check out the last step.

Be the First to Share

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Step 2: Build a Body

Bag Monsters are made, not born.

Start with marking and cutting out the main body. The easiest way to do this is lay a plastic bag down flat, and cut out two identical patterns, one on top of the other.

To join them together, use masking tape along the seams. It's okay if you don't do it perfectly, and actually good if there are little holes for the air to escape. Leave room for any extra limbs, spikes, horns, etc. you want to add on later.

Step 3: Make Limbs and Add-Ons

Give your bag monster a hand. Or two. And some horns.

Make limbs and fun add-ons by cutting out more pieces of plastic. For doing detailed corners and curves, a good trick is to layer masking tape on top and below, and then cut out the shapes with a little tape margin left over.

When attaching limbs, spikes, horns, etc. to the main body, cut a hole in the main body before taping on so that air can easily pass through.

Step 4: Give It Personality

Sure they're called bag monsters, but some of them are actually great when you get to know them.

Is your bag monster, pensive, angry, sad, loyal, hungry, incapable of being put in an emotional box? Give it some details and decorations to either connote warm fluffy feelings or to inspire utter fear in the hearts of neighbors.

At the most basic, you can use masking tape to make faces with pens to draw on. Get creative, and use things you have around to make it unique.

Step 5: Prepare to Inflate

Your monster is almost ready to haunt! It just needs a little air.

Cut a water bottle or cardboard tube that can fit easily around whatever you're using to blow air. Tape it in to some part of your bag monster, so it can inflate easily when placed over your air-pusher.

I'm using a blowdryer in this example, but vacuum cleaners in reverse, shop-vacs, and dustbusters all work great, too.

TIP: If you're using a blowdryer, use one that has a cool setting. In a classroom, I tape down the "cool setting" button to make sure it only blows cold air. Otherwise, you'll end up with hot hands and melty monsters. :)

Step 6: Bring Your Monster to Life!

You don't even have to wait for a lightning storm. Just stick the blowdryer in and inflate! Your bag monster will spring to life, and begin it's happy haunting. Once you've made one, there's plenty to do, change, or inspiration to make more, so keep going!

Here are some variations and things to think about especially in an educational setting:

Measure: use this project to measure surface area, and approximate volume of creatures

Movement: can you make a bag monster that moves (like a flailing inflatable arm tube person)

Geometry: can you make specific three dimensional shapes?

Extremes: make the longest, the tallest, the most volume, the heaviest, the lightest

Have fun, get monstrous, and as always, keep exploring.

Teacher Notes

Teachers! Did you use this instructable in your classroom?
Add a Teacher Note to share how you incorporated it into your lesson.

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Bag Monsters: Know anyone with a strange phobia of garbage bags? You will soon with your easily makeable, quickly inflatable, highly sensational Bag Monster. This project is inspired by a beautiful idea by artist Joshua Allen Harris where he made three dimensio...

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Cheap and Easy Seedling Pots: Use Newspaper

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Newspaper Basket Weaving - turning paper into baskets!

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Newspaper Basket Weaving - turning paper into baskets!

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Do you have some newspapers lying around? Why not recycle them and create a fabulous basket, perfect for magazines or keeping things together. Follow us on http://www.you.co.za, http://www.facebook.com/YOUmagazineSA and http://www.twitter.com/youmagazine

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How to Make Crayons From Recycled Crayons

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It was the best project because it was super fun.

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Bird feeder from toilet paper roll, found twig, recycled medical volume cup, found seeds from old garden project, recycled string

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What repurposed material was used in making these shoes ?

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What repurposed material was used in making these shoes ?

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Put your name and your answer below

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From what repurposed material do you think this surfboard bag was made?

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From what repurposed material do you think this surfboard bag was made?

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Put your name and your answer below

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From what repurposed material do you think these bracelets were made?

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From what repurposed material do you think these bracelets were made?

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Put your name and your answer below

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From what repurposed material do you think this messenger bag was made?

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From what repurposed material do you think this messenger bag was made?

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Put your name and your answer below

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From what repurposed material do you think these jeans were made?

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From what repurposed material do you think these jeans were made?

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Put your name and your answer below

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From what repurposed material do you think this bag was made?

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From what repurposed material do you think this bag was made?

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Put your name and your answer below

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From what repurposed material do you think this camp chair was made?

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From what repurposed material do you think this camp chair was made?

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Put your name and your answer below

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1. Tennis ball holder
2. Sound enhancer
3. Floss-inspired cake cutter
4. CD case holder for squishy food like bagels!

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Repurpose Four Everyday Objects | Design Squad Videos | PBS KIDS

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Need an amplifier for your music, or something to hold all your stuff? Watch this clip to learn how to repurpose things around your house -- tennis balls, toilet paper tubes, dental floss, and CD cases - into something totally new!

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From what repurposed material do you think this bag was made?

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From what repurposed material do you think this bag was made?

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Put your name and your answer below

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Read/watch about how chewed up gum is turned into all kinds of products! 

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Read/watch about how chewed up gum is turned into all kinds of products! 

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If prompted to log in at Scholastic SuperScience, log in as "student" and use class password: science3

1. This reading level is a bit high, so either have an adult read this or click on "text to speech" feature on the left hand side of the article.
2. Watch the video of the about the company Gumdrop.

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Sticky Business Engineering Article for Students | Scholastic SuperScience Magazine

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How a designer in England is giving chewed-up gum a new purpose

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Bird feeder from cardboard toilet paper roll, colored paper, twig, recycled office paper, collected seeds, found nail, string, used and recycled packaging tape

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Circle thought it was another dog and he barked a lot.it was a lot of fun to make the bag monster:Niki

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The plastic forest reminded us of some really cool art work/murals we saw all over Porto Portugal. This Rabbit is made entirely out of upcycled trash. Can you see Charlie standing next to it (for scale)?

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I have seen so many murals and they are all so cool.
THE    FUTURE     FOREST
reminded me of the murals

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i am going to do diy crayons

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Hanging on our tree now!

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We love upcycling or repurposing. here is ur birdfeeder, plastic bottle and some plastic trash we found.