Have you ever wondered about the interesting recycled and repurposed materials in our school’s building areas and wanted to know the story behind them?
In 2002 (and again in 2007), after returning from Reggio Emilia to observe their schools, NSW teachers were intrigued by the way the Italian teachers created building spaces with reusable materials which they would gather from their local creative recycling center, Remida. Our teachers wondered how these non-traditional, recycled materials could inspire children to construct, develop stories, and explore cause and effect, gravity and motion on the structures and creations our children build. As a result of this inspiration in Italy, and by collaborating with several other Reggio-inspired schools and community members, in 2003, reDiscover was created, our own version of Remida. We have since made regular visits to reDiscover to stock our building areas with interesting and inspiring cones, wheels, tubes, cartons, fabric, cylinders and more–all discarded materials from factories and businesses that we now treasure as valuable building, art and learning materials!
reDiscover is located just 5 minutes away from our school, next to Pitfire Grille on Washington Boulevard (12958 W. Washington Blvd). There is a great drop-in program every Saturday from 10-1pm where you can pay $5 per project and have your child go nuts building and creating from a treasure trove of amazing, recycled materials in reDiscover’s warehouse. Join reDiscover this Saturday, 12/4 from 10-1pm (and the following Saturday) for “Homemade Holidays” –a day when children will create unique ornaments and other holiday projects made out of recycled, repurposed materials.
If you’d like more information, visit http://www.rediscovercenter.org/ or talk to (or email) Hanami’s mom, Sari Yoshioka, who is on reDiscover’s Board and can tell you more about their projects and membership!
PS- Click the photo above to get a closer look at some recycled materials in the building area that NSW found at reDiscover!