Mr. Giso's Room to Reads' Bright Idea #12

The Wonder of Recycled Meat Packaging!

In the beginning of the school year I send home a "Mr. Giso's Wish List" to every family.  On it, includes things I need for various projects throughout the school year.  Here are some items on my list.

•paper towel and toilet tissue rolls
•tisse boxes (see this blog post)
•yarn, ribbon and string
•old greeting cards, tissue paper and wrapping paper
•magazines and newspapers
•baby food jars
•Crystal Light containers
•cleaned out cans of various sizes (see this blog post)
•anything else you think we can use

In addition to the above, I include meat containers (washed, of course)!  These things have so many terrific uses throughout the year.  Here are my two favorite ways I thought I would share with my blog friends.

#1 Use as a Dice Rolling Miracle

When my students play mathematics games, they often need to roll  dice.  This mean a lot of noise and a lot of dice falling onto the floor and ending up under shelves, tables, etc.  It also leads to many arguments over when a die rolls off the surface, is it a "do-over" or not.  By rolling the dice over a meat tray, it's quiet.  There's no need to over roll and no need to argue.

#2 Use as a No Mess Art Surface

When crafting, it can take quite a bit of time to cover surfaces with newspaper.  Plus, once you get paint all over the newspaper, it usually ends up getting thrown out to avoid more messes.  By using a meat tray as your surface, it's easy take out and easy put away!  I recycle the same trays over and over again.  It gives children a clear visual as to where they should keep their mess.

In addition, meat trays are an easy way to hold counting chips, pennies and other manipulatives that you may need to distribute to your students in small groups.  They are a must in my classroom and model recycling for my students.  What other ways do you think meat trays can be used?  

I have special shout out to Jessica Stanford for her blogging tutorial.  It guided me through the creation of my new, cool blog post "signature" below.  What do you think?