Posted: February 14, 2025
Oh my gosh! Look at these packing materials! They came shipped in containers, protecting important products. Now what? They could go to a landfill. Better yet, they could get recycled. Even better yet, they could become loose parts, FREE play materials in your early care and education (ECE) or out-of-school time (OST) program.
Some packing materials; boxes, brown paper, white shredded paper, and pieces of cardboard.
Seeing the possibilities and opportunities in packing materials is a gold mine for a teacher who is open to child discovery and emergent play themes. Children who are exploring schema like enclosing, connecting, trajectory, transporting, going through a barrier (poking holes), or ordering will find great opportunities when invited to repurpose packing materials for their learning and fun.
Reusing packing materials is environmentally friendly and fiscally prudent. Flatten the brown paper. Tape it to a table or wall and allow children to create murals. Infants would simply enjoy crinkling pieces of the paper. It has such an interesting, noisy quality!
A shoe insert is just too good to throw away! It can become the beak/mouth of a homemade puppet. Furniture corner protectors can become ball tracks or ramps in the sensory table. They can become bridges in the block area. The trick is to NOT determine ahead of time how they can be used or what they must become. Allow children to follow their ideas. Say something like, “I got these things in some packages this week. They were so interesting to me. I bet they could be fun to explore or to use in play today. I’m going to put them in the basket. Anyone is welcome to use them.” Then see what happens!
Imagine how the shredded, crimped paper might become props in dramatic play or add dimension to a mixed-media art item! The possibilities are multiplied 100 times by the children’s brains.
Enlist families to donate supplies that they think have the potential to inspire creativity and experimentation. This will get them more engaged with the creating and play that is happening in your program. It will also spark their own courage to use loose parts and recycled materials in the play that happens at home. Inventors all started with crazy ideas, combining things in their world to create new products and processes.
If You’d Like To Learn More:
- Finding Wonder in Found Objects (course)
- Wonder-full programming ideas (PDF)
