Chick-fil-A Upcycling Fun!

As a member of the Chick-fil-A moms’ panel, I was inspired to accept the challenge they recently presented to us: creative ways to upcycle their salad containers.  Yes, these babies here:

I decided to enlist my kiddos, with the idea I could utilize this idea in my preschool classroom.  Since I’m teaching summer camp, the perfect opportunity presented itself for one week of camp.  Every year during the last week of June, we have a small (but fun) “parade” for the 4th of July.  What perfect way to get preschoolers involved than with making their own shakers!

So, hopefully, the ones I constructed with the kids will serve as inspiration for my summer camp kiddos, and perhaps some of y’all, as you gear up to watch local July 4th parades in your area, or throw your own with your neighborhood kids.

As you’ll see, I’m a big believer in emphasizing the process rather than the product, particularly in this case.  I had my kids use various fillers for their shakers: rice, popcorn kernels, and two different sizes of pasta.  I also have a tube of various sensory goods (rice, beans,noodles, etc) mixed together, and we filled one container with the mixed goods.

Prepping for a post #OnTheBlog about upcycling our @chickfila salad containers. #chickfilamoms #chickfilamomsDIY

A photo posted by Barbara Burns (@atlantasfrugalmom) on May 31, 2016 at 9:55am PDT

The teacher in me couldn’t resist the natural science lesson here: we hypothesized over how the different fillers would sound in the containers.  After testing them out, we discovered the smaller fillers (rice) made the “smaller” sound, while the bigger filler (large pasta) made the “larger” sound.

We also learned mommy needs to buy new paint.  Apparently really old paint won’t stick to plastic.  Ok, so that’s another hypothesis, but the finished product spoke for itself.  All in all, this was a great craft, and we will add it to our arsenal of kid-friendly crafts with recyclables.