100th Day of School Recycle Craft

What You Need:

• 100 pieces of recycled materials such as foam blocks, foam peanuts, string, yarn, ribbon, fabric scraps, plastic tubs and lids, old school supplies, buttons, beads, pipe cleaners, bottle caps, rubber bands, old plastic cutlery, or pieces of broken toys.
• Glue gun (to be operated by an adult).  

What You Do:

1. Have your child go on a hunt collecting recycled materials such as those mentioned above. If your think it might be helpful, before you hunt for materials, you and your child might want to brainstorm what kind of materials she'd like to include in her sculpture. Be sure to collect more than 100 items so your child has plenty of objects to choose from.
2. Explain to your child that she will make a sculpture by gluing materials together. Tell her that it's a good idea to start with the larger, heavier materials. These materials should go at the bottom of the sculpture, followed by the smaller ones on top.
3. Have your child count out 100 of her favorite materials from the collected items to use in her sculpture.
4. As your child begins arranging the items for her sculpture, heat up the glue gun. When she's ready, apply glue as needed to hold items together. Allow the glue time to dry before adding new pieces, if needed.
5. Admire your budding Rodin's work of art. You might even want to take a photograph of it. Challenge your child to think about how big or small a sculpture can be if it's made from 100 items.

Did You Know? Auguste Rodin was an artist who lived from 1840 to 1917 in France. He is famous for raising the public’s interest in clay sculpture as an art. There is a museum named for Rodin in Paris.