When I was young, I started saving corks from my parents’ wine bottles. Fortunately, this didn’t mean I had a future as a wino. I must have been planning to build a raft with them or something. I can’t remember.
It’s still hard for me to throw corks away and I have a bag full of them in my basement. However, since I’m no Martha Stewart, who’s blog link you can find at the bottom of this page, I never made a raft, bulletin board, or trivets out of them. Instead, I decided to figure out something simple my kids could do with them. This project involves a little crafting and a little science or engineering, depending on what your children decide to make.
My kids loved it!
supplies for cork creatures:
corks (real ones, not plastic)
toothpicks (the colored “party pics” work well, since they are round on both ends)
wooden skewers (if you want to make puppets)
buttons, markers, paper, string , plastic eyes, paint, feathers, band aids, etc.
glue
Remember, young children may need help with the sharp toothpicks. I would definitely recommend supervising older children too.
Let your kids design animals, bugs, cars, robots, and anything else they can think of with the corks and toothpicks. My 6-year old discovered that you can make puppets with them if you put them atop skewers. She also made a stable for her horse from the corks and toothpicks and a saddle using a band-aid!
I LOVE to see what they come up with on their own!
Very young children will probably be happy coloring and gluing things on the corks and no toothpicks need be involved. You can cut off any exposed sharp ends with scissors. It also helps to tell older kids to twist the toothpicks a little as they push them into the corks.
Tags: green craft projects
Creative Mama 
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