Up for a challenge? Way back someone posed a question of what to do with old diaper wipe containers - she got many good ideas. I’m hoping this question will get the same response
I have about 120 brand new bottle corks in my possession. What can I do with them - other than fill bottles with happy juice and cork them :)?
I am drawing a complete blank each time I remember that I have them. I am nearing the point of giving up and tossing them into recycling (at least I think they can be recycled) but I thought I’d make a last ditch attempt and ask all you creative mommies & daddies. Anything pop to mind?
Cover a piece of light wood in them for an instant cork board
Have your kids make boats. Sailing boats or rafts would be fun.
Just hand them to the kids in the sand pit and see what they do!
Oh, if you haven’t been turned on to pinterest, then I would suggest giving that a try. I found dozens of ideas for corks there, but its hard to easily transfer them to this forum. It takes a couple of days to get approved on pinterest, but its well worth it. Its a like a virtual pin board where if you see something on the internet in passing you can pin it if you want to give a try later. Or maybe you are thinking about ideas for a dream home or looking for preschool crafts for the year or season.
Do a EK lesson on the sustainability of the Cork Oak tree…here is a company recycling them and making tiles from old wine corks! If you send them corks they will send you samples of the finished product… http://www.yemmhart.com/news+/winecorkrecycling.htm
Make a homemade calorimeter to determine how many calories are in a kids favorite foods using some…here is how: http://www.seplessons.org/node/349
Here is a fantastic online set of science experiments, many of which use corks…you can make one dance under glass using static electricity, use them to make home-made compasses, and burn them to make different colored flames… http://www.arvindguptatoys.com/arvindgupta/vivian.pdf
If you are thinking more arts and crafts ideas, they make great homemade stamps, boats, wreaths, and stringing decorations on Christmas trees (saw a friend do this in college with Waaaayyyy too many )
Just a few ideas…
BTW… You can make your own paper but I have never managed to get the consistency right! lol
I have treid quite a few activities with corks with my children and they are smething which is used quite a bit in our house ( I do love a good glass of wine with dinner)
Cork Animals : Turn corks into cool floating animals. You basically just string corks on strong wire. As you will notice from the pictures above, the head is usually the smallest part of the body…and the corks get bigger until the middle of the body. Then the legs taper down to smaller corks too. The above animals might not look like much, but after you paint them, they will look amazing.
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