Fifth grade students at Johnson Elementary School recently had the chance to take a break from math class.

 

On Friday, Jan. 24, they participated in an UpCycle project that was broken up into two sessions. One group of students went at 9 a.m., while another went at 10:30 a.m. in the school’s LGI room.

 

The project was led by retired teacher Carl Wunderlich who had students make a cartoon character, Olaf, from the Disney movie “Frozen” out of used K-Cups as well as a craft folding project where old calendar photos or greeting cards can be used to create a 3D box.

 

On top of the art projects, the students also got to spend some quality time with their grandparents or in some cases, fill-in grandparents.

 

“We have had several Parent Day activities here before but this is a first for grandparents,” Johnson Elementary fifth grade math teacher Taya Trent said. “Not every student has grandparents who live in the area so the students had an opportunity to “adopt a grandparent” for the day with some of the grandparents who were there.

 

“We know that past generations have been more efficient when reusing and repurposing items. This was a great opportunity for our students to interact with grandparents and a fun project for all to participate in.”

 

The K-Cup (individual coffee cups mostly used with Keurig coffee makers) project was the first order of business. The students didn’t know exactly which cartoon character they would be creating so there where plenty of excited gasps when it was revealed to be Olaf.

 

Within a matter of minutes, hundreds of K-Cups were turned into beloved snowmen.

 

“I saved Keurig cups for a year and Mrs. Trent was saving them as well,” Wunderlich said. “The students were saving them as part of their UpCycle program where they take something and up cycle it into something else.”

 

Next, the students used construction paper to make the 3D boxes and were given an instruction paper so they can use calendar photos or greeting cards to make one at home.

 

Wunderlich anticipated the 3D box project being slightly more challenging because of the stock construction paper is made of. He said he knows the kids will have an easier time making one at home with a thicker stock of paper.

 

While art projects are always fun in elementary school, the students — even if they didn’t realize it — did get to apply some of the math and science skills they have learned in class in addition to learning about the importance of recycling.

 

“They had fun and they learned,” Wunderlich said. “Just the idea of following directions off a piece of paper and being able to do that is a lifelong skill.”

 

Wunderlich, who taught at Johnson Elementary for more than 30 years and another seven at Bridgeport Middle, said the event was as fun for him as he hopes it was for the students and he would be willing to come back and be part of more projects like this in the future.

 

“Harrison County has been very good to me and my wife (who taught for 37 years) and I,” he said. “I thought it might be nice to give something back. I wanted to come in and do something at Christmas with the students but Mrs. Trent said, ‘Oh no no no, we have something better coming up with the grandparents.’

 

“I knew several of the grandparents and several of the students came up to me and said, ‘You had my Mom and Dad in school’ so that was nice. It’s a special time for them to get to spend it with their grandparents. I thought it was an excellent day.”

 

For more photos of the UpCycle project, check out an upcoming photo gallery on Connect-Bridgeport.com