From trash to treasure

As a preschool teacher, everything I see around me can take on another form and function.   Before I throw something away, my mind is always wondering how else I can use it and how my "kids" can learn from it and enjoy it.  It gets quite expensive to keep things for the children new and exciting, so sometimes we have to really think hard about how to save money and be creative.  Another important thing for my "kids", is that they have opportunities to have experiences to explore with real objects that can be found all around us - in our home, in the stores, all around their environment.

The picture above  is of  my fellow co-teachers and I scavenging to find some treasures from other people's trash.  We went to this large fabric store near our school and low and behold in their dumpster we found the large rolls of cardboard tubing that the fabric is originally wrapped around.  

One of our kind hubby's is going to saw the long rolls to size and we are going to add these wonderful "tunnels", "caves", and "bridges" to the Block Area.  After loading these tubes into the car, we then actually went into the fabric store.  We introduced ourselves and explained that we are Preschool Public School teachers looking for real-life items that we can bring back to our classrooms for the children to explore with and enhance their pretend play.   A few minutes later, we walked out with a very big bag loaded with scraps of beautiful fabric of all types of color, textures and sizes.  Perfect for the Art and Discovery Areas!

Today proved the point that it can never hurt to try.  Here are some places we went to and the treasures that we received on our scavenger hunt:

-local mechanic shop - sandpaper, brillo-pad type sponges, nuts and bolts, an old telephone, and best of all real steering wheels and seat belts from actual cars!

-carpet store - 8 sample books of different types of carpets, carpet squares and a roll of  berber carpet!

-fabric store - going back tomorrow because we asked for any old, unwanted spools

-Marty's shoe store - several sizes of shoe boxes

-a Bridal shop - an old pair of women's flats (for the girls to use in dress-up)

All in all, a very productive day and done in an hour and a half!!  Much thanks to all the wonderful and generous store owners!!!