Creating using cardboard boxes and trash is the Number One activity in my opinion for kids.
I had the opportunity to work with children going into First and Second Grades at the 2021 Sitka Fine Arts Elementary Camp. This was over five days, in which (this year) groups of eight children came in for 45 minutes, also also went for 45 minutes each to three other classes in music, movement and ceramics.
The first two days, we looked at slides of paintings and then painted. On the next two days, we made constructions/houses/sculptures/environments/stories, starting with a shoe box, and using hot glue and Elmer’s, fabrics trims and yarn, papers, railroad board, and trash, such as toilet paper cores and interesting packaging (like the boxes phones come in).
The second day of this we had parents send special trash in with their kids, because what I had brought in was exhausted. Some of the things were surprising, like a used Subway drink cup, and a squeezed out tube of toothpaste – but the creativity of these kids knew no bounds: a drink cup became a cannon, the toothpaste cap a cup.
The second day we also gave them paint the last 10 minutes, if they wanted it.
The last day we all presented the work, which was amazing as well, the work and detail and humor that went into these creations.
A home with his mother’s shoe, a shower, a tv and all kinds of nice things you’d want in a home 
The top of the next home . . . 
And the interior: note picture on the wall, decorations, table, and cards 
This is the top of the home. The owners apparently spent all their money on this Milk Carton Tower and the Bouncy Castle (formerly a coffee press) and so . . . 
they used all their money for the Tower and Bouncy Castle, so had no money left for furnishings. 
I think this was part of a compound featuring a pool or hot tub, towers and trap 
Very elaborately decorated home, featuring a table and decorations inside 
An engine, a monster/ghost, and a character responding to it, pretty good! 
A beautiful home, with a tv, bed and character, table and stools 
A tower, and characters, I wish I was paying more attention! 
Lots of things going on here, traps and roads, and nets 
A sweet home 
The beach! 
A bed, table, bedside table, nicely done 
A very interesting home, with playing cards, decorations, and a chandelier 
A garden! 
Started as a nest, became a vessel with three cannon, the one in the middle loaded with chenille yarn 
One side of the construction following . . . 
Shark! 
I think the cans may be cannons, I don’t remember the details of this one! 
This person had help from a grownup to make the couch, but very nicely done, picture on the wall, table, lamp 
This is a sticky spider web 
A hospital from the outside: note some patients in the windows, the road and parking area below. Very nicely done. 
I don’t remember exactly what is portrayed, but it is certainly going to be entertaining for the owners 
A home and garden with some characters 
A cover for the home next: 
Under the cover, a garden filled with flowers and trees and birds 
The letter H for her last name; a hot tub and kiddy pool on the two sides of the upper platform, and below, a swimming pool with compartments for each person 
A future engineer? Already and engineer. Very elegant. You can go down the hole at the top of the tube to quickly emerge on the main level. Note the animal, and the support for the platform. 
Another I wish I had been paying more attention! 
A hamster habitat/home, note all the things to play with, from cards to a slide to shoes, doesn’t this look like fun! 
A home – note couch, round tv (I think?) and chandelier repurposed from mixer beater 
Closet, art, bed, and vehicle 
This one is on stilts, so that when it floods, water will not get into the home. 
Sweet, chairs, a table?
Sitka Art Blog 
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