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The focus of these pages is Beavers, the junior section of Scouts Canada. |
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100 Things To Do With
Newspapers and Magazines
Compiled by Dave Morley |
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Here's another in the series of what to do with recycled products. Although many are sketches, others are fairly complete. If you have any ideas to add to the collection, please send them along.
- Airplanes Make various flying airplanes.
- Ball Toss Beavers make crumpled balls with a sheet of newspaper. They toss it back an forth taking one step backward each time they successfully catch the ball. Cut the bottom off clean and dry plastic bleach or detergent bottles to make scoops. Beavers toss the balls back and forth with the scoops.
- Banners Make a good news banner using the details of the classified section as the background. Use BIG print, using markers, or cut out letters. Announce a Beaver's birthday, a theme, or other special occasions.
- Chain Cut paper into pieces of 200 cm. (8 inches) by 75 cm. (3 inches). Fold in half along the long edges. Open and fold the long edges into the centre. Fold in half again. Fold the short edges in half. Open and fold the ends into the middle, then fold in half again. Thread on folded piece into another so the centre fold of the inserted piece is against the bottom fold of the other. Add more folded pieces into the chain in the same way.
- Collages Give Beavers the coloured weekend comics. They then rip parts of panels out of the paper and glue on a piece of construction paper. Beware! The grain of paper does not make it easy to tear.
- Costumes Since newspaper ink tends to smear easily, have your Beavers wear old clothes for this activity. Help Beavers make newspaper costumes. Make hats. Stuff rolled-up and/or crumpled paper into their clothes, tear in fringes. Tape is optional since neck and arm holes can be torn out of the paper.
- Craft Project Spread Spread newspaper out under your paint of glue project. Give Beavers the responsibility of helping to fold up the papers and clean up.
- Filler Crumpled newspaper is a good filler when other bags or sacks need to be filled for crafts and activities. An example is filling a small paper bag to make a head for a dummy, or a starting point for a piρata.
- Fire Starters Tightly roll several sheets of newspaper lengthwise then tie about every 5 centimetres along the length. Cut in between the strings to make little packets. Holding the packets by the string, dip into melted wax.
- Hats The basic design has been around for years. Always fun to do for a Silly Hat theme, or pirates.
- Indoor Activity Set This is a combination of three activities: skating, snowball fight, and basket toss. Give each Beaver a pair of glossy pages from a magazine. Show they how they can "skate" on the gym floor pretend they are in a skating competition. Once this event is complete, pick the paper up, crumple it up and have a snowball fight everyone is fair game. Finally, to clean up the mess, everyone tosses the paper into paper baskets.
- Kick Sack Fill and old pillow case, onion or potato sack with crumpled paper. Sew up the end. Makes an interesting "ball" for soccer or races.
- Möbius Strip Cut a long strip of paper, such as you would get by cutting a three inch wide strip from a newspaper, and the joining the ends of the strip after twisting the paper one half revolution. Something at least 6 feet by 6 inches would work well. When you try to cut such a band though the center into two pieces (lengthwise) you get a longer band which is twisted in two spots. If you cut this you get two large bands, each of which is twisted - the more you cut the worse it gets. For more "how to", a story,and activity ideas see our story Sagices.
- Mysterious Messages Using a Spy theme, Beavers find letters or words from papers and magazines to copy a "secret message" and glue onto a piece of construction paper.
- Paper Mache Rip newspapers into short narrow strips. Dip in glue, sizing, paste, etc.
- Paper Plant Pots Roll several sheets of newspaper (black and white only) around a rolling pin or other narrow, cylindrical object. Slide each paper tube off and staple the ends. Cut each tube into 8- to 10-cm lengths. Again, staple the ends of each pot. (The pots are bottomless. Put in a reflector seed box, fill with soil and seeds.
- Puppets Beavers cut out faces from a magazine and attach to the top of a craft stick.
- Puzzle Glue the bright cover of a magazine, coloured cartoon section or the classifieds onto a piece of construction paper. Help the Beavers cut different shapes for their puzzle. For a variation, use two colourful magazine pages and glue them back-to-back.
- Ribbon Wand Roll a newspaper of magazine page into a tight wand. Add a 2 metre (6 feet) piece of crepe paper.
- Story Card Tape 13 blank index cards along the long side. In order, print the alphabet on the cards. From various magazines, find a small picture of something whose name starts with each letter of the alphabet and glue these on the cards. Use the cards to let the Beavers tell you a story, each Beaver telling about a card, until the alphabet is done. You'll get a different story each time.
- Stuffed Beaver Here's a fun game for a Family Night. Divide the group into "teams". One Beaver from each team puts on a man's shirt and trousers. The team must make paper balls and stuff as many as they can inside the clothes within a given time. Also a great game with balloons.
- Target Make a sheet of newspaper or the cover of a magazine the target for bean bag toss. The paper may move if the bag does not land directly on it, but that's half the fun.
- Teepee Using a hula hoop, and a sting from tied to the hoop, tape on newspaper to complete the teepee.
Books and resources used as a starting point:
- 1001 Teaching Props
- Warren Publishing House Inc., Everett, WA 98203, 1992
ISBN 0-911019-46-4
- Best of leader, Fun at the Pond, the First Twelve Years
- Scouts Canada, National Council, 1993
ISBN 0-919062-68-7
- Disney's Family Fun Crafts
- Deanna F. Cook, Worzalla Publishing Co., Stevens Point, WI, 1997
ISBN 0-7868-6304-8
- Kids Create
- Laurie Carlson, Williamson Publishing Co., Charlotte, VT 05445, 1990
ISBN 0-913589-51-9
- Make Stuff
- A handy spot on the web for projects using recycled materials.
- Theme-a-Saurus II
- Jean Warren, Warren Publishing House Inc., Everett, WA 98203, 1990
ISBN 0-911019-26-X
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Last updated: December 30, 1999
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