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Tuesday, December 11, 2012

4th Grade Recycled CD Snowflake Mosaics


I've got to say I'm pretty proud of this project. A lot of us bloggers tend to borrow ideas from other teachers (rightfully so), so it is refreshing to write completely original lesson plans from time to time. This lesson came about a couple of years ago after a technology support teacher dropped off a box filled with 90's software CDs that would no longer work with our computer system. I think I had them for at least a year before figuring out what to do with them and writing this lesson. 

The internet is good for a lot of things. Figuring out how to shatter CDs is not one of those things. I tried hammers and other blunt objects to no avail. One site said to freeze the CDs overnight before bludgeoning them into small pieces. Nope. I ended up going back to my trusty paper cutter. It works like a charm. I just cut the CDs into strips. As it cuts them, it creates cracks throughout the strip. They are then easy for kids to snap apart into smaller pieces. 


Check out my full lesson plan here!

4 comments:

ArtMuse said...

Love these! I love using CD's they add such a great sparkle :)

Anonymous said...

Getting ready to try these!

Anonymous said...

Where is a good place to get CDs or DVDs?

Zach Stoller said...

Mine are almost entirely software CDs from the early 90's. Our tech person did a big purge a few years back. I've also had kids bring in old music CDs. I would imagine you could probably find some from thrift stores or places like Half-Priced Books. Good luck!