Preschoolers create ‘Recycling Museum’

Earth Day project at Montgomery’s Kid Connection.

By: Kara Fitzpatrick
   MONTGOMERY — You’re never too young to celebrate Earth Day.
   Last week, Kid Connection students decorated the halls and rooms of their school with art projects made from 100-percent recycled materials. And they called their display the "Recycling Museum."
   A snake was crafted from plastic drink containers. A giant caterpillar was made from diaper boxes, scrap paper, wallpaper and food boxes. One class made puppets from fabric, paper scraps, cardboard tubes, boxes and egg crates. Even the scarecrow — placed at the front door to greet museum patrons — was made from recycled materials.
   "The inventiveness of our teachers and students is always amazing to me," said Kid Connection Director Laurie Scasserra. "This challenged the kids artistically, plus they learned an important environmental lesson — finding a second life for items instead of adding to landfill sprawl."
   For the past month, students collected the recyclable materials for the museum project.
   "The children bring these lessons home to parents, too," Ms. Scasserra said. "We all learned a lot, and it was great fun."
   Other items featured in the eco-friendly display were a log cabin built from paper-towel tubes, shoebox dioramas of imagined scenes, a town constructed out of paper bags and dinosaur skeletons created from packing peanuts.
   Kid Connection, a school run by the township for children 3 to kindergarten-age, enrolls 180 students.