New in The Re-Source

With school starting again, teachers are sure to ask students to share something about their time away from the classroom. We'll link you to an Imagination Factory art/reuse activity that will help kids make a visual diary of their summer vacations.

True recycling involves processes such as shredding, grinding, or melting to make a new product, but reusing something simply means that you've found a new purpose for an item that normally would be thrown away. We discovered one art teacher from Indiana who is a true recycler, and in her feature, you'll learn more about Nicole Lewis and how she turns old crayons into new ones.

Now in its third year, the Global Cardboard Challenge encourages kids all over the world to use their imaginations to solve problems and to create with a common material-cardboard. We'll tell you a little about the project cardboard kidsand link you to the parent organization that runs the challenge. We hope this article inspires you to join in the fun, too.

America is blessed with great beauty, but too often we litter our roads, highways, and urban areas with trash. Many years ago, we created a large version of our America the Beautiful? collage, and now we're challenging you to work an online puzzle that was made using the image. Good luck!

Reena Kazmann hosts a website called Eco-Artware, and she's constantly on the lookout for resources and ways to help others live a more sustainable and environmentally friendly life. Searching the Internet for items of interest, she links them on her site, and we'll share some of her resources with you.

Finally, in the Leftovers section, we'll show you how to keep yarn from tangling by reusing a common, household container, and giving it a new purpose will help save natural resources and landfill space.

What's In This Issue

Summer 2014 Newsletter

Hoosier Art Teacher Creatively


Recycles Crayons

crayon creationsEvery art teacher probably has a scrap box filled with broken or orphaned crayons, but Nicole Lewis is one who decided to do something about it. The Fishers, Indiana teacher melts the colorful nubbins and pours them into molds, making dozens of fun shapes that tempt kids to unleash their creativity.

Founder of Original Recycled Rainbow Crayons, Nicole sells the colorful creations in more than 100 shapes and sizes. The resourceful artist and teacher offers everything from alphabet letters to robots at her website, Art 2 the Extreme. Nicole's recycled crayons are also available online at her Etsy shop https://www.etsy.com/shop/art2theextreme.

-->
resource logo
by Marilyn J. Brackney

Newsletters Archived by Topic

The link above will allow access to dozens of Imagination Factory art activities and articles that appear in all newsletters.

world hands

What Did You Do on Your Summer Vacation?

collageAt one time or another, we've all listened to others talk about trips to interesting places and visits with relatives, but creating a visual record of your summer puts a different twist on this theme. Learn how to make a collage of items you may have saved during this time, and make a permanent remembrance of your summer vacation. See http://www.kid-at-art.com/htdoc/members/lesson8.php at The Imagination Factory to learn about the art of collage.

 

 

Leftovers: Reuse a Household Container to Avoid Tangled Messes

Do you become frustrated when yarn tangles while you're trying to work on a project? Save plastic containers with openings in the top, such as the one shown here, and place the yarn inside. Then just feed the end through the opening, and you can easily pull out the yarn without the usual tangled mess.

yarn canyarn can close up

Global Cardboard Challenge Promotes Creative Reuse

indy upcycleThe Global Cardboard Challenge, an event in which kids build something from cardboard, grew out of a project started by Caine Monroy, a young Californian who was featured in an earlier newsletter. You may remember that Caine loved arcade games, and during the summer, he created games out of cardboard boxes to entertain himself.

Filmmaker Nirvan Mullick told Caine's story in a documentary, which inspired people all over the world to create their own games. This international movement resulted in the founding of the Imagination Foundation and the Global Cardboard Challenge.

This year, kids all over the world are invited to use their imaginations to create something out of cardboard and other recycled materials, and on Saturday, October 11th, communities will come together to play with their creations. Visit The Global Cardboard Challenge to learn how kids and adults can participate in this fun project. Photo of Dutch children courtesy of Carla Dekro.

 

 

America the Beautiful? Puzzle

The America the Beautiful? collage was the first art/reuse activity created for The Imagination Factory, and the project itself was introduced to students on April 22, 1970 when Earth Day made its debut. See the project at http://www.kid-at-art.com/htdoc/lesson1.html, and just for fun, see how fast you can complete this puzzle that was created using the America the Beautiful? collage image. Ready, set, go!

mapcollage