The entire Living School Elementary class, 15 kids aged 5-10, worked very hard for over a month or so to get ready for the SCRAP Holiday Bazaar. The event spanned the weekend of November 20th and 21st inside the SCRAP store. There were nearly 20 vendors, all of whom sold gifts made almost entirely from reused materials. It was very inspiring to see what other things people made and the creative uses they had for materials.
The kids all signed up for time slots to come manage the sales. Many of them had incredible sales skills, schmoozing with their public and using their people skills to encourage people to spend. But the quality of their work was really the selling point. We talked a lot about high quality and why it is important to make things well. This is one way we can save them from becoming garbage, one of our top objectives! It was great to see that the things they made at the end of our production period, with all of their practice, had advanced in quality considerably.
One of our top sellers were our famed sea urchin ornaments. We found the shells at SCRAP. Immediately, we had the idea to turn them into jelly fish using many types of ribbon. The high quality ribbon was all salvaged or donated.
The little pillows you see here are "Bed Bugs" that the children decorated and sewed. They are filled with grains and lavender. When placed in the microwave for a few seconds they get warm and help with aching muscles or keep you cozy on a cold night.
Our display comprised of donated, borrowed and re-used materials.
The garland on the front of the table was made by water coloring paper, cutting out circles and gluing to thread. Immediate, simple and cheap beautification!
Beautiful hand painted gift boxes sold for only $2.00
These are tile coasters that we decoupaged with the children's drawings, paintings and spin art.
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During a lull, one of our 5 year olds made this pleading sign. Fortunately, when you are working with children you can get away with these blatant attempts. Coming from them, they are adorable.
While this opportunity was invaluable for the children and their life experience, I cannot sign out here without mentioning that WE TOTALLY MADE OUR GOAL for craft sales! We are beyond pleased and happily surprised by the fact that the kids sold nearly all of their crafts. Now, we have been having serious discussions about how to spend (or save) the cash. The few items we have left have been set up on a makeshift table at school to sell to parents and friends.
If you missed this sale, SCRAP has plans for an ongoing boutique in the near future.
My child was involved in the holiday sale. She was very impressed with their ability to "make a business". She said; "Hey, that was a cool way to use math and get stuff out the landfill for good. Imagine, all that beautiful stuff going into the trash!" She has been watching the website to see if another picture of her goes up. Thank you to SCRAP for inviting us to join your community. The children are getting so much out of their work with you and I get to shop at SCRAP more often.
ReplyDeleteI love it! Making new things out of old things is one of the best lessons! And you can do so much with it. I visited a school this summer that was making Chihuly chandeliers out of plastic bottles.
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