Ten Uses For Old Newspapers
Think you've finished with the newspaper once you've read it
? If you've got preschool children, think again! Old newspapers can be used for so many things that they're almost worth having about even if you don't really want to keep up with what passes for current events.
Parents with children attending a Montessori early learning centre would be especially wise to look to the potential of an old newspaper, as this item, covered with words and letters as it is, might be able to help your child in the process of learning to read and count (and other skills such as cutting and gluing) without you having to fork out oodles of cash for "proper" Montessori learning materials.
These ideas should get you started with what you can do with an old newspaper.
1 Make a moveable alphabet. The classic Montessori moveable alphabet is made of wood. However, cut-out letters from newspaper can also work in the same way. Cut the letters out and stick them onto cardboard (from an old box if you want to recycle even more stuff), and your child can use them to spell out words. Don't forget to show your child how this is done, and only do it if your child is ready for it. Ask the teacher from the Montessori centre if you're not sure if your child is ready.
2 Make papier-mch. To make this, tear up the newspaper into fine pieces (or your child can cut it up with scissors while practising how to use these tools) and stir it into a glue mixture. Suitable glues include good old flour and water paste, dilute PVA glue (can be pricey if you are making a large batch) or wallpaper glue. Once the mixture is all nice and slushy, sculpt and mould things with it. A good tip for beginners is to coat a blown-up balloon with petroleum jelly and use this as a starting form. Cover the balloon with the papier-mch mix to make a piata, or some other ovoid sculpture (owls, pigs, etc.), and when it's dry and ready to paint, pop the balloon and extract it. Papier-mch makes a great activity for a messy play day.
3 Newspaper sword fights. Why spend your cash on a Wii system or similar so your children can have safe swordfights if you can just make soft swords out of newspaper held together by rubber bands, string or sellotape? With small children, make sure that the newspaper swords are fairly flimsy so nobody gets hurt - a single section of an average newspaper is about right. If a too-hard blow is struck with these swords, the sword will break and the receiver of the blow won't get hurt. These swords are a must for imaginative play involving battling monsters, pirates or wicked knights.
4 Make your own books. Newspapers (and magazines) are a very rich source of pictures of all sorts that can be snipped out and stuck into a scrapbook or blank exercise book for home-made educational books (animals, colours, alphabet books, etc.). Your child can help you find and group the pictures, using the sorting and matching skills that Montessori education encourages, and can also help cut out the pictures. (pictures of cars in ads are great for colour matching) Don't forget to cut out letters or words to make labels for each picture.
5 Protect surfaces during other activities. A lot of things that children do while learning a skill get a bit messy. Making a mess and getting it wrong is part of the learning process - nobody gets it right first time, but as any Montessori educator will tell you, trying is very important. Newspaper makes a great way to contain and get rid of the mess. As they're absorbent, newspapers blot up spills incurred while learning to pour. You can cover a lot of floor or table when your child is gluing, cutting or painting using a newspaper, so spread it out generously to keep the carpet safe.
6 Pet bedding. Keeping a pet, if your circumstances permit, is a good way for children to learn about the natural world and also about responsibility. Newspaper, torn into shreds, makes a good form of bedding for what are known as "shelf pets", i.e. small things like guinea pigs, rabbits, mice and the like. Newspaper is a must for lining anything that's likely to get messy, as it makes the clean-up process a lot easier. Don't forget to involve your children, even if they're small, in the cleaning up part of pet care - and make sure they wash their hands very thoroughly afterwards.
7 Dress-up clothes. With a bit of imagination, a pair of scissors and some sticky tape, newspaper can be made into a number of dress-up clothes. Paper crowns and hats are easiest to make, and so are skirts, superhero capes and ponchos. These fancy dress items aren't going to last long, especially if they get used in games that also involve newspaper swords (see Activity 3), but they're fun and cost next to nothing. Paper crowns and hats tend to have a longer life-span.
8 Indoor-suitable balls. One reason why many parents don't let children play with balls indoors is because most balls bought in a shop are too hard and easily knock down ornaments and smash equipment. However, a ball made of scrunched up newspaper is lightweight enough to do no harm and still allows your children to play games that build hand-eye coordination and gross motor movement (e.g. ball tag, piggy in the middle and all those old favourites).
9 Cylinder sets. You can create home-made Montessori sensory materials out of newspapers rolled into cylinders. You can make cylinders of different thicknesses or different lengths, depending on your skill level, and you can paint them (or not) if you want to.
10 Window cleaning tools. It's important for children to learn to help around the home. You can use a damp, scrunched newspaper to clean a window without hurting your child's sensitive skin (or yours) by using harsh chemicals.
by: Rick Rakauskas
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