REUSABLE MATERIALS IDEAS

You can find the materials for creating sets, props and costumes almost anywhere…

Air-Conditioner tubing
Light. Silver. Shinny. Bendy. An easy and excellent costume. Short offcuts can be sourced from local factories or reverse garbage centres (although avoid any that has been near fiberglass insulation or such).


Aircon tubing offuts become the arms and legs of a giant robot puppet (Waitara PS NSW). Or, with students climbing inside them, Gymea Bay PS NSW uses them as a 3D factory scene or magical character from the Far Away Tree

Aluminium Cans
There are many uses for cans (and the ring-pulls)!
• Join ring-pulls together to make jewellery, belts, ‘punk’ accessories.
• Join cans together to create ‘chains’ for ghosts.
• Cut and flatten cans for armour plating.
• Cut cans in spirals for interesting ‘medusa’ style hair.

Aluminium Foil/Easter Egg Foil
Send a letter home requesting that parents collect and wash any foil they use. Reuse this foil for jewellery, decorations on masks, alien costumes etc.

Bottles (plastic only)
• Cut plastic milk bottles up into feathers. Attach to a white shirt to create a bird.
• Use 3 litre milk bottles to create masks/ headdresses that fit onto the actor’s head.
• Cut 2/3 litre milk bottles into squares/rectangles for a different approach to armour.
• Glue a series of small plastic softdrink bottles onto a headband for a ‘Statue of Liberty’ style headdress.
• Use the inside of reused long-life fruit juice containers for metallic effects.

Boxes
Small boxes make great hats, costumes or props.


Box heads from Waitara PS NSW

Chopsticks
Can be reused as whiskers on cat/mouse mask. Return to their original use after the performance.

Clothes From Home
Sounds obvious? Look at costumes that can be derived from clothing the students already own. Why make overalls for farmers when you could reuse a pair of their jeans, a T-shirt and simply make a bib to add for the ‘overalls’ effect. Similarly, if your story is concerned with bullying in the playground, use your school uniforms!

Egg Cartons
Great for making googly eyes! Could also be used to create the lumps and bumps for a dinosaur costume or the scales for a snake/fish.

Fake Flowers
Call for donations from your parent community. Reuse these on clown’s costumes or for a bride’s bouquet.

Feather Dusters
Bunch several together to create a feather headdress, a peacock’s plume, an emu’s body.

Helmets
Grab a bike helmet or hard hat and turn it into a paper mache animal or creature for greater height and effect.


Helmet becomes animal headpiece in the hands of Cooma North PS NSW/ACT. The mane on this papier mache Zebra is an old broom.


Macdonald Valley and Spencer St Primary Schools used bike helmets with streamers attached (along with boxes fitted as costumes) in their Story-Dance.

Hosiery
Reuse hosiery for a variety of purposes:
• Stuff with filling for spider legs.
• As a mask for robbers.
• Stretch over wire coat hangers for angel/butterfly wings.

Hankies
Gather together several hankies onto an elastic wrist band/neck band to create African style adornments. Consider dying or painting (if they can be kept) for desired colour/effect.

Hats
If you are seeking hats always send a note home – you’d be amazed at what’s out there amongst parents and grandparents.

Ice-Cream Containers
Reuse ice-cream containers to create:
• bus-boy/porter's hats.
• helmets.

Jewellery (costume)
Asking your parent/grand-parent community is a great way to stock up on previously unwanted costume jewellery. You can then reuse it as jewellery, or apply it to masks, headdresses etc as decoration.

Milo Tins
Creating robots, a tin-man or aliens? Consider Milo tins to dress arms and legs.

Mosquito Netting
This can be reused for bridal/fairy costumes whilst keeping it intact if the netting is to be returned to its original use. If you are allowed to keep it then you can cut it up for tutu’s, petticoats etc.

Plastic Pot Plant Pots
Also great for robots, soldiers or aliens. Can be used for hats/helmets.


Flattened aluminium cans become a suit of armour (Campbell PS ACT) and this soldier has a plastic pot plant for a helmet, cardboard armour and aluminium can shield (Taylor PS ACT).

Paper
Newspaper skirts; classroom waste paper for papier mache objects or any kind.

Plastic Shopping Bags
• Gather tightly in several layers onto a waistband of elastic for a perfect tutu.
• Cut into strips and attach to a headband for wigs.
• Shred and attach to a lion mask for the mane.
• Stuff into the arms of an octopus or puppet.


St Joseph’s Primary School QLD and Duffy Primary School ACT plastic bag hair.

Styrofoam/foam
Fairly versatile product with many applications. Great for iceberg costumes, headdresses that sit atop the head, flowers with a hole for the face. (JUST NOTE: When painting, be sure to use a water-based paint and do a test area first – many paints will ‘melt’ the foam).


Thornleigh West Primary School NSW 2004. The polystyrene insides from computer boxes became wearable iceberg costumes spinning around the cold antarctic ocean.

Table-Cloths
Unwanted tablecloths make terrific togas or turbans.

Umbrella’s
Use as umbrellas! Or, for a twist, turn them into jellyfish, mushrooms or flying saucers which the student’s use as puppets. Use as wheels for groups of performers forming cars, buses, etc. Umbrellas make great wheels to represent a cart, train etc

Sheets
No doubt many parents have old sheets that can be donated for reuse. Consider dying them or painting them for the desired colour/pattern. Sheets can be reused to form the basis of many costumes – colonials/convicts, pirates, doctors/nurses,…the list goes on and on! Sheets over a wooden frame make a good flat and can be backlit with torches to show silhouettes.

Video Tape
Ask parents to donate worn out videos and reuse the tape to create wigs. The foot section of reused stockings (preferably black) is ideal for the cap of the wig. Centres like Reverse Garbage often have buckets full of old videotape.


Maitland Public School NSW
National Eco-Zone winners. Wigs made from old videotape.


Or these video tape wigs by Merrimac SS QLD in which were lent to another school in 2004.

Washing Trolleys
Houshold washing trolleys covered in carboard or fabric wheel easily around stage and can be returned to their old use at the end of the performance.


Maitland Public School NSW (2004 National Eco-Zone Winners) created this horse and chariot from a washing trolley on wheels covered in fabric cardboard and old fabric.

Conical spools (for thread)
They can be found at badge-making shops or workwear retailers (anywhere that does embroidery) and are perfect for horns or princess hats.

Cardboard boxes
Found at most retailers (eg small boxes from mechanics, packing boxes from any shop.
Cartridge boxes from cartridge-remanufacturers are great - they have have a fairly large stock of funny/odd-shaped moulded cardboard which was used to protect the cartridge in it's box .... these are perfect for a cave or cliff wall, or castles, or anything really! (check out www.acra.asn.au for nearest shop)

Nets
Bits of nets might be sourced through orchards, aquaculture farms, vineyards.

Often it just requires a call out to the community at large re: things they normally throw away - they may not see these items as resources, but a few creative minds can turn it into something amazing!

Cans
Steel cans can come in handy when creating all manner of things. Cansmart are dedicated to preventing steel cans from becoming landfill - so check out the following two resources for more information on steel cans.

The life cycle of a steel can
Cansmart findaword activity sheet