It's a milk jug! It's a lunch box! It's a trophy?

So we went to Open House at the Probe Center with the kids. Because the kids that attend Probe come from all different schools around the district, they actually had the open house a few weeks after school already started. While we were sitting there, fairly relaxed (hey we are pro's at these Open House things now!) the director announces that "Recycling projects" are due the following Tuesday.

Recycling project? I think to myself as I look at Riley and Ciara quizzically. Seems neither one of them bothered to mention that they had a project due in four days!!. Now you might be thinking, "You have four whole days to complete two little projects" but we had a weekend that was jam packed full of activity.

So it turns out that the projects weren't mandatory; they wouldn't get graded on it, but they do earn points for each project that they turn in. So Monday evening we sat down to do their projects. The idea was to recycle something that we no longer needed into something new. We started on Ciara's project first. We took an old t-shirt that she had outgrown and cut off the sleeves and part of the neck.

Then Ciara turned the t-shirt inside out and sewed the bottom of the t-shirt shut.

At this point the sewing machine decided to stop working.
So I had to help her whipstitch the edges of the sleeves and the neck.

And she ended up with this:
A cute little reusable t-shirt bag!

Next, it was Riley's turn. For his project he took a gallon milk jug and cut around three sides of it about 4 inches from the bottom. The fourth side he cut all the way up to the handle and rounded the edge. (I'm sure that my description makes no sense)


I helped him score the now cut milk jug about halfway up so that it could fold. So first the three sides that are the same fold down and then the longer flap folds down to make a lid. We used a small piece of adhesive velcro to keep the flap shut.

And the finished project was this - A Sandwich box!

From a gallon milk jug in the recycling bin to a
sandwich box that can be reused.

So because of the short notice, we were just tying to complete a project to satisfy the requirement and get the points. Boy were we surprised when Riley came home with a trophy! His recycling invention took first place! Yea recycling!