Materials for Makers

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we moved!

we are now posting projects inventory and news at materialsdepot.tumblr.com.  please follow us

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PLAYground 2014 with the "Magic Dream Quest" Teepee in the foreground.

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PLAYground Festival 2014

June 7th, from 11-2 on the playground at South 2nd and Keap st in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.  Free and open to the public.  Music, food and games and STOMP ROCKETS. 

Bring your paper towel tubes to the depot!

Donate sheets of stickers and rolls masking tape!

Volunteer for PLAYground!

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The Brooklyn Arbor tree made from free materials contributed to our weekly collection and to Materials For The Arts, decorated with a name card made by each student.

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For Arbor Day, students collaborated to make a forest of miniature trees using free, reclaimed materials from our Materials Depot.

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Materials for Makers volunteers are preparing to celebrate Arbor Day at Brooklyn Arbor. Staff and Family volunteers are packing kits of reclaimed and recyclable materials for each classroom to make groves of their class trees. Teachers: we made an example grove for inspiration.

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Thursday March 27th = paper/papel collection

nada del papel: shoeboxes, brown paper, cardboard, paperboard cereal boxes, scrapbooking papers.

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Pre-sort your materials donation! Donating a months worth of bottle caps? Some scraps of trim and fabric? A bunch of plastic doo-dads? It saves our sorting volunteers time if you group similar materials together in a bag or container. You can also stack items together like the blue styrofoam trays. Flattening paperboard packaging and cereal boxes is a big help too, saving time and space.

Pre-sort!

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Major improvements to our back room!  Now a functioning workspace, with cabinetry and countertop installed, task lighting mounted.

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Here's a project for a Family Friday in the Cypress class (3rd grade). DIY game based on the game "Clue." Students chose the setting and suspects.

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This year, Brooklyn Arbor celebrated "Depot Day" on the 100th day of school, magnet coordinator Beth Reed and dual language coordinator Sara Yerry led the effort, inviting every classroom to create a project around the theme of "100," using materials from the Depot. Here's part of the project created by the Mulberry class (pre-kindergarten).

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New Materials in the DEPOT

Here is a sampling of some materials from our recent trip to MFTA.  Materials For Makers is an organization to bring free materials into our school, Brooklyn Arbor, for use in hands-on projects for our students. School community members can visit the Materials Depot and see all the great materials available.

Build a nest! Fringe trim looks a lot like spring buds! Create a game with pointers? What can you make with a reel of film?

Need some help? Click above to “Ask a Maker” for some help planning your project.  

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Each Thursday we roll out a big green  bin and and collect everyday materials that can be re-used and re-purposed and for use in hands-on projects at Brooklyn Arbor Elementary School.  Parents report their kids  frequently divert materials destined for the trash to our "Depot."  We may not be diverting a vast amount of waste with our efforts, but the kids are developing an instinct for re-use, re-purposing and sense of environmental stewardship. 

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Colorful plastic doodads from a decades old math curriculum we salvaged at MATERIALS FOR THE ARTS.

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Technology cluster teacher Ms. Laforestrie reached out to Materials for Makers to help make DIY Library Shelf Markers. Shelf markers help students put their books back on the shelves where they came from and keep the library in order. These are made from paint stirrers. Thanks to Crest Hardware for the paint stirrer donation!

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Bin full of wooden clothespins that came to the Depot in our weekly collection! 

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Birch classroom fairy houses!  Made from juice bottles, assorted materials, leaves, pebbles and acorns. Students chose a season as a theme for their fairy houses.  There are leftover fairy house materials prepared and ready go. Family Friday anyone?!