PlantCarton Life

I loved our carton project – I let it be completely student driven and we were all amazed with their “outside of the carton” thinking!! This project encouraged my students to actively try to find other things at school to recycle. Any project that focuses on reduce/reuse/recycle and brings the frailty of our land to the eyes of students is successful. Our future is truly in their hands.

Through recycling and reusing the cartons at school for many other purposes, students learned to save money, resources of the earth, and our environment. They said this project was fun and exciting, and it also helped them stop littering to help keep our school community clean.

“Our carton project allowed our students to come together as a community.  They were able express their artistic abilities, learn about sustainability, recycle, plant a garden, and be a part of something outside themselves.  I am already looking for another project for the beginning of next year.

After seeing how the students of all grade levels were so engaged in the carton project, and seeing how it facilitated core content instruction, I became enthralled with the whole idea of the project. It truly ignited my STEM initiative.

We used milk cartons to plant marigolds, tomatoes and milkweed for every student. It is wonderful to be able to provide these experiences for my class without having to purchase containers and it is teaching them a great lesson about reusing and repurposing items.