Beauty in Recycling!

Above: Water bottle chandler created by four year olds.
This past week I received an email from my mom with this picture attached. She is the assistant teacher for a pre-kindergarten classroom. I was blown away by this picture but more by what can be taught through it. The children helped collect the bottles from home or other classrooms, which helped build community. They then had to color the bottoms of the bottles (after the teachers had cut them off) Through this they learned about stained glass and how the light shines through. They then got to help string on the bottoms. I don't know if they did these in any order but it helped with hand eye coordination. In all of this though, they learned about recycling and how you can turn trash into a treasure.
This chandler hangs now in there class and the children are able to proudly proclaim that they did that and that it is their work. This ties into student directing. Students should be able to be proud about their work and one way to promote this is to limit the use of ditto sheets and other store bought materials. The students don't care about them, they actually don't like them so they tear them up. But when you put something in the room that is theirs, suddenly their attitude changes and they respect the work.
As a teacher, I feel that I will strive to offer as much student direction as possible. I will do this by not having ditto sheets, things bought from stores, or by decorating the classroom by myself. It is the students room as well, so they should get to help design it.