Expert: Ginger Lordy - 12/27/2005

Question
I am coordinator of a special ed. religious program with 98 people who have development disabilities.  The abilities of my clients are a wide range.  I have clothes pins with the spring, I have the little wooden spoons that come with ice cream cups, I have egg cartons, I have plastic forks and spoons.  I would like to use these articles for craft projects.  Do you have some ideas?  Thank you.  Shirley

Answer
Hi Shirley,

There are lots of things you could do with the supplies you have,  I am assuming you have paint and glue and some other supplies too.  

Egg Cartons:

You could make lots of different animals

Caterpillars - Cut them into a strip and paint them green or brown, you could add different stuff to the creatures while the paint is wet, like pompoms, glitter, tissue paper if you have it.  The caterpillars would look cute with the little wooden spoons attached underneath for feet.  The could easily be decorated with markers or paint.

I found a website with lots of other animal ideas and more

http://www.eggs.ab.ca/recipes/craftcorner/eggcartonideas.html

Clothespins

You could always make noteholders - perhaps using an egg carton animal ?

Clip magnets for notes or photos - just make sure the magnet is strong enough or it will slide down the fridge with the weight.

Butterflies - use the clothespin as the body and glue tissue paper or triangular pieces of paper (could be decorated with markers) for  wings.  Pipe cleaners make good antenna, and googly eyes are great but you could use small buttons or draw them on with a marker.

Wooden Spoons

These could make snowflakes if you glue 3 together in a sort of fan design, then you could paint and glitter them and attach a string to hang them.   If you have a lot perhps you could make mobiles.

I found this really cute hula girl project too

http://www.crafts4kids.com/projects/812_5.htm

I don't have too many ideas with the plasticware but I use them when finger painting to make designs and patterns in the paintings.  This can be messy but is a fun and relaxing art project because there is no wrong way to make a messy painting.

Hope these ideas help you out,

Good Luck!

Ginger