I don’t know about you, but I hate wasting school supplies. Living on one income has its disadvantages. My grandmother grew up during ‘The Depression’ and instilled a sense of stewardship in my mother… who in turn instilled that same stewardship with me (when it comes to food and supplies, that is). [I’ve had to learn money stewardship the hard way… but that is a topic for another post.]
I thought I would share this little nifty-thrifty notebook idea with you since it is what we did at the beginning of this school year to “save a tree”. I actually am a ‘tree-hugger’ of sorts. I had a favorite tree in my yard growing up and hugged it off and on. [Of course, now that I type that in print, it sounds rather odd… hmmmm.] I enjoy doing what I can to save the environment from getting any worse than it is today [aside from giving up my gas-guzzling vehicle, that is – a woman has to have limits].
My kids write in journals a lot. They have prayer journals and school journals. Each day we do an assignment of some sort in each one. Every now and then, we don’t finish a journal at the end of the school year and sometimes we have half a notebook left. Rather than leave the paper un-used and file it away in their memory boxes, we came up with this easy way to separate LAST YEAR from THIS YEAR so we can be less wasteful.
We made notebook collages (sort-of like cover pages) to separate the “2005-6 School Year” from the “2006-7 School Year”. I let the kids pick through some National Geographic Kids magazines to find their artwork/photos for the project. I helped them to cut some of the things out and arrange them so that there was no empty (uncovered) space. The photo above is the end result of our careful placement and gluing. This saved me money and was a fun project that the children enjoyed. Now, they feel better knowing they did something for the planet and our pocketbook; and they had fun doing it!
Buzz Words: art project, elementary, kids, fun, art, crafts, children, school, homeschool, school supplies, collage, magazine, stewardship, ecology, conservation, paper, recycle, life, photos
We love keeping notebooks too. I started these kind too for my family:
“Art of Note-taking” HERE:
http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/HSBCompanyBlog/219251/
Maribel
Nifty idea!
You know what my husband used to do at the end of the school year? He figured out how to carefully unwind the spiral wires from notebooks, put all the unused paper together, then wind one spiral back into the new stack and create a new, large notebook from all the leftovers! LOL
So do you do these collages over a blank piece of paper? What if the next year you are more prolific and run out of room?
Those look beautiful…great idea!
I enjoyed ‘buzzing’ aroung your blog! Thanks!
Beautiful idea! I LOVE the thrifty-ness of it. I, too, cannot stand waste — especially waste that can be avoided so easily! Kudos to you! Keep it up! =)
Maribel, your link cut off. 🙁
Homeschool Help Web – Wow, your husband really goes to all lengths to save paper! Ha. That’s a little above and beyond if you ask me! My project seems lazy compared to that!
My Boaz’s Ruth – Yes, we just use the next available sheet of paper to make the collage. I write the school year and date on the back of it because when the glue dries, it is hard like card stock.
Fiffi – Thanks for visiting. 🙂
Proverbs31 – Thanks for the Kudos.