Art From Pencil Shavings!

pencilI’m sure you’re well acquainted with lots and lots of pencil shavings (unless you’ve gone to all mechanical-style pencils). In fact, nothing says elementary school quite like the smell of pencil shavings. That was the smell of work for me for many years. Now the smell of work has a lot of variety. I sit near the kitchen here at The Mailbox so work smells like oatmeal, fish, reheated pizza, and coffee. But I digress. I never thought of actually doing anything with all those pencil shavings. Fortunately, Marta Altés has! Click here to check out this artist’s whimsical creations that involve pencil shavings. What a unique item to incorporate into artwork!

What items do you give to your little ones to use when creating art? Here’s a list of fun items I can think of:

  • cupcake liners

  • pom-poms

  • craft sticks

  • drinking straws

  • paper shreds

  • aluminum foil pieces

  • rings cut from cardboard tubes

  • pieces of bulletin board border

  • strips of paper towel

  • sticky dots

  • puzzle pieces

  • plastic flowers, bath poufs, gift bows, and balled-up plastic bags (for printmaking activities)

Happy creating!


One thought on “Art From Pencil Shavings!

  1. My husband likes to do carpentry work. I have him save the saw dust and use it for free art and also in the sensory table. The kids love his small pieces of left over wood for art. I also save bottle tops and when the garage or my husbands man cave gets to much I have taken in different sizes of nuts. My biggest advice would be to look in the garage if your husband tinkers with building anything. After all Prek teachers have another way of looking at other peoples junk. LOL

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