Brinquedo Do Lixo (making games with trash)

Some of the girls at the end of the activity. Flowers and photo frames!

So in honor of earth day and ambient (earth) month here in Cape Verde, I tried to come up with an activity that was not just a trash pick-up. About 3 weeks ago, I saw in one of my co-workers desk that she had a book about making games out of trash. So that is how I got an idea for an upcoming project. So on Sunday, the 20th of April, initially about 10 children (that very quickly turned into 30 children) came and made picture frames and other art work out of plastic bottles and bottle caps. Yes this was the art teacher who helped us out. This is an example of the flower...and yes every part of it was made out of a soda bottle.

It was hectic but I think it was fun for the kids to have a little creativity in their lives; they do not get that very often. They were excited to start, excited to take the work home, and wanted to do it again. In the beginning there were around 5 girls who helped us find bottles and bottle caps and they were great! Before the activity started though, I used my “influence” on all the kids I knew to get them to invite their friends. This art project was fun, hectic, and sometimes a little frustrating but it had such a great effect on the kids that I think we will have to try it again.

These are some of the kids making the flowers. Check out the bottles on the
table...that is only half of all the ones we found.

Yeah I think they had fun...or they just love to take pictures. Maybe a
little of both.