Dumpster Albums

One of our greatest joys is turning one person’s trash into treasure. What a lucky day it was when Kate found 4 boxes of old record albums by the dumpster at our storage unit. Our storage unit is where we house untold treasures we have found or been gifted—it is an area full of possibilities. Members of our families don’t always see it that way, but we do. Back to the albums.

I was looking for a fun project, when Kate delivered a box of albums, saying her kids had been painting them. Okay. Project found. I was prepping for the day when I saw my trusty toaster oven. I love that oven, we melt all kinds of things in there but I do have to be more careful of late since I set off the fire alarm and the whole school had to be evacuated, but that’s another story. Into the oven I put an album on top of a small metal bowl, set the oven at 200 and waited. Wow! It got floppy and drooped over the bowl. Magic!

The lesson began with a talk about record albums, what exactly are they? I asked the kids if anyone knew what a record was? Had they seen one before?  My grandpa has them and my favorite response, “I saw them in a picture but never touch one before.” It was emotional to melt them having grown up with this technology, but melt them we did.  Here are the results!