Snow Day 'Adaptive Re-Use' Challenge:

Make a 'Snow Being'

 

Today's Snack: Snow Cupcakes! Make them from scratch. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a mixing bowl, combine 1 egg, 1 cup of milk, 1 teaspoon of vanilla, 1¼ cup of granulated (not powdered) sugar, and one stick of margarine (which you have melted in advance). Beat on low power for a minute or so. Then add 1¾ cups of flour, 2½ teaspoons baking powder, and ½ teaspoon of salt. Mix on high power for about two minutes. Pour into paper-lined muffin tins. Bake for 20 minutes. When cool, frost with prepared white frosting. Pour shredded coconut into a deep bowl. Turn each cupcake upside down after you've frosted it, and dip it into the coconut. It's nice to have snow that's so tasty, and you don't have to shovel it!

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Supplies:

 

Scrap cardboard, the bigger, the better

 

Used giftwrap, tissue paper and ribbons

 

Old Christmas cards - you might ask parents of your school, members of

your church, or your parents' co-workers to give you all their cards

after Christmas instead of throwing them away

 

Glue, scissors and other creativity tools

 

A snow day is a perfect time to practice your creativity, and challenge yourself to make some special art for your front door, wall or fridge. But let's not spend a dime on this project. Let's make something really special from . . . trash!

 

Creativity is often required in adaptive re-use. That term means figuring out another way to use an object to save the expense of buying something new. You have to "adapt" your thinking to recognize different options for using materials. With this project, you are going to adapt something that most of us throw away in the trash - holiday giftwrap and cards - into something wonderful that you can enjoy, year after year.

 

You might plan ahead to do this activity next January, and in December, ask people to save their Christmas giftwrap, cards and other decorations to give to you instead of throwing them in the trash.

 

Now let's make our "snow beings." Using cardboard from the biggest white box you got for Christmas instead of throwing the box away, or using extra poster board that you don't want any more, cut out the shape of a snowman, with three large circles, or other "snow being" shape you would like to make. You want to have a lot of white in your creation, since it's supposed to appear that it's made out of snow, but you can use other colors, too.

 

Who says it has to be a snowperson? Why not a snow whale? A snow zebra? Snow alien? How about a snow monster? A snow lizard? A snow giraffe?

 

The only rule is: no pencil, crayons or markers. We want this "being" to be three-dimensional, or 3-D - not flat!

 

Examples:

 

Cut many, many tiny squares of white tissue paper, wrap over a pencil eraser, dot with glue, and stick on as close together as you can for a 3-D effect

 

Crumble white packing noodles and glue on for a more pebbly 3-D effect

 

Or do the same thing with popped popcorn

 

Mix flour, salt and a little water and smash it onto the cardboard until it hardens

 

Glue macaroni or other pastas on, let dry, and paint

 

Paint glue on the whole background piece and sprinkle white glitter on it, or lots of clear candy wrappers, or plastic wrap

 

"Weave" bits of Christmas ribbon into clothing for the being - perhaps a collar, saddle, dress, pants, vest, bow tie

 

A hat might be a real one from your "lost and found" box of winter items; just stretch the hat over the part of the cardboard that forms the head

 

A scarf could be made from old socks, sewing scraps or some extra Christmas wrapping paper

 

Instead of sticks, arms could be fashioned from paper clips strung together or cut-up dowels with mismatched mittens from the Lost and Found

 

The eyes could be buttons, glued on

 

The nose could be a real carrot - a tiny baby carrot would stand up if you cut it across one end so it'll lay flat, poke a brad through the cardboard underneath and plunge the carrot firmly onto the two ends

 

The smile could be red licorice, gumdrops, red hots or just about anything else, glued on

 

You might want to fashion a heart, eyeglasses, earmuffs, gloves, a broom or any number of other objects to further express what your being is

 

Neighbors and passers-by will smile when they see your snow being taped to the window or front door. These also brighten those cold winter days when they are inside, and they make a great gift to send to work with a parent or to give your teacher a little unexpected welcome-back gift when the snow day is over.

 

Isn't creativity . . . cool?