Rather than purchasing new resources in this financially-challenged year, preschool and children’s teachers can rely on teacher-made items in the classroom. Recycling and re-purposing materials for classroom use is good for the budget and for the environment! Here are ten ideas to get you started:

1.       Puzzles – cut apart old teaching pictures that relate to the current Bible topic to make puzzles. Mount the pictures on poster board or cardboard before cutting. Sources for pictures of God’s creation and the natural world are seed catalogs and calendars.

2.       Books – purchase an inexpensive photo album and slip in photos cut from magazines. The photos can be changed each month to correlate to the subject area being studied.

3.       Crayons – melt broken pieces of crayons together in muffin tins to make “chunk crayons.”

4.       Homeliving furniture – turn a cardboard box upside down, use a permanent marker to draw burners and knobs, and your preschoolers have a stove! Cardboard boxes can be used for anything from a doll bed to a washing machine.

5.       “Find It” game – In a clear plastic bottle, place small objects (or words on slips of paper), then fill with shredded paper or circle dots from a hole punch and seal shut.

6.       Matching games – use duplicates of anything to make a matching game where children pair up the items that are alike.

7.       Cardboard blocks (“Blockbusters”) – pack cardboard boxes tightly with crumpled newspaper and seal shut with packing tape.

8.       Baby toys – clear plastic bottles can be filled with a variety of different items for babies and ones to see, roll, or shake. Try colorful ribbon, small seashells with sand, baby oil and water with a few drops of blue food coloring, or green leaves. Be sure to glue the lid shut on the bottles for safety.

9.       Sound game – using several film containers or non-clear plastic bottles (like the small Sunny Delight bottles), place a different item in each bottle for the children to shake and guess the object from its sound. Try sand, rice, popcorn kernels, and gravel.

10.   Nesting Cups – collect aerosol can lids in graduated sizes. They are colorful and easy to clean!