DEVELOPING CREATIVITY, PROBLEM SOLVING, LEARNING AT HOME WITH JUNK MODELLING
I hope everyone had a lovely weekend staying safe at home. Katie was helping me sort out the recycling and after finding plastic bottles and kitchen roll tubes, she decided to make a space rocket.

Katie used a small plastic bottle and cut a piece off a kitchen roll tube. She stuck them together with sellotape and wrapped red paper around them both, folding the paper at the top to make a triangle shape. She cut out triangle shapes for the fins at the bottom and covered them with red paper and cut other shapes for the windows.

Let’s explore your recycling – first check with your parent or explore it with them, to make sure it is safe to use – and see what you can find. There are lots of great objects such as cereal boxes, egg cartons, plastic milk bottles and kitchen roll tubes which can be ripped or cut and stuck together with sellotape or glue. You can transform the materials into whatever you choose and then paint or decorate them – what can you create? If you are using scissors, remember to sit down and use them safely.

Junk modelling is great fun and helps develop children’s creativity as they use their imagination and construct freely, while developing problem solving skills and resilience as they work out how to make their creation. Constructing also helps develop fine and gross motor skills, which helps children to manipulate tools better and supports the development of early writing skills.
Could you be a future engineer, exploring materials and deciding whether a material is strong enough? Why not send us photos of your creations to our Twitter account?
Have fun being creative!