I once did something with my nephews 1st grade class for their recycling theme by having them bring in old socks of whatsoever colors they had (intact or with holes - and washed of course) to make sock puppets. We used embellishments of all kinds that were donated by the local craft store from their clearance bin, i.e. buttons, ricrac, yarn, sequins, pearle cotton thread, felt etc to make eyes, smiles, hair etc and they each got to personalize their puppets while I sewed on the button eyes for them and in some cases elastic tongues for the boys who wanted to make a snake. They loved it and all their embellishments were secured using Elmers Glue (which is childsafe). In the end we had an abundance of extra socks so I took about 8 of them to make sock puppets for a storybook that one of the childrens' parents donated as a recycled item (Stone Soup) and we adults used those puppets in tandem with the ones each child made the day prior to "act out" the story. It was a hit and in the end they realized recycling and repurposing can be tons of fun costing next to nothing and helps save the earth. Hope this helps!
Explosive blessings, abundance and inspiration to you all!
- The Creative Seamstress