What can you create with a stack of newspapers, a few rolls of masking tape and scissors? Turns out you can make a chef’s hat, a pair of pants, a dress, a skirt, a headband and even a nose piercing.
Those were some of the fashion outfits that fifth graders in Allison Baggett’s Makerspace class at Edison Elementary School created recently. The assignment was pretty simple: the students had to work in teams, each team had to manage its time so that every person got an outfit, and lastly they were instructed to “get messy; have fun.”
Baggett said this is the fourth year she has done the assignment. She said she got the idea for the project from the stacks of newspapers at her house.
“We get the newspaper everyday and it was piling up,” she said. “And I was thinking, ‘What can I do with newspapers?’ And then it just came to me that, you know, the kids, when they were in class, they were “I want to wear this, I want to wear that.’ Well, why not have them make it out of newspapers? So the kids were talking about different things they wanted to wear and I just put two and two together — newspapers and kids.”
It seemed like a perfect match.
Once the students were paired up, ideas started flowing about what they wanted to make.
“I’m going to make a skirt thingy,” said Owen McLaughlin.
It didn’t take long before Cash Love was sporting a chef’s hat.
Why a chef’s hat?
“Because I’m gonna be a chef so I can cook in my house,” he said. “Dang, it keeps breaking.”
Devyn Bigby was busy making a dress for his teammate, Genesis Portillo.
“The dress didn’t fit her. It wasn’t big enough. It was supposed to be a size 7,” he said as he set about cutting out another dress.
Angelica Volosky and Serenity Glover worked together to make outfits for each other. Glover was wearing a dress while Volosky taped it up and measured Glover’s head for a headband.
“You have to be able to walk in it,” Glover said as she took a few steps.
Volosky said she was making a skirt to match the dress.
“You make it match by taping the skirt to the top. She’s very small so it makes it easier,” Volosky said, who also planned to make a choker for Glover.
Jayda Fifer and Kinley Taylor also were busy making outfits for one another. Fifer, sporting a strip of tape across her nose that she said was sunscreen, was making a nose piercing of wadded up tape for Fifer.
At another table, Nathan Williams and Johan Gonzalez were busy outfitting Gonzalez in a suit of newspaper clothes.
Williams said the pants were the hardest part “because you have to wrap it around him,” he said.
“I can’t hold it; it rips off,” Gonzalez said as he tried to walk.
“It’s paper,” Williams replied.
Williams was doing most of the cutting and taping as he made the outfit for Gonzalez.
“I like making stuff at home. I like arts and crafts. I like helping. Oh, it looks good,” Williams said as he surveyed his workmanship. Williams was so intent on making the outfit for Gonzalez that he didn't have time to make anything for himself.
Baggett said learning to work as a team is a main goal of the project.
“If you try to do it by yourself and not work with your partner, then it’s not going to work out very well,” Baggett said. “It teaches them to work with somebody else. They’ve got to face challenges together. My favorite part was watching them work together to make these really cool outfits and then do the fashion show so we can see all their hard work pay off.”
After the outfits were made, the students took a walk down the red carpet, so to speak, to show off their creations. Some had a hard time moving with all the newspaper and tape stuck to them.
“I made a headband, a necklace, a dress and a bracelet,” Volosky said after her walk down the runway. “It was a lot of fun and I got to play with my friends. I learned how to do everything correctly or it will rip.”
Another goal of the project is simply to have fun.
“They need to be kids. They need to have fun and learn,” said Baggett, who said she is always on the lookout for recyclable materials such as bottle caps and toilet paper rolls for her Makerspace projects.