Recycled junk resources for teachers

Press, 24 April 1987, Page 3

Recycled junk resources for teachers

Ms Marilyn Staite does not mind being called the junk lady. Junk is her job. She is the co-ordinator, of Creative Junk, the resource centre begun by the Childcare Association to provide materials for pre-school and young children. The centre opened in Rosewarne Street, Spreydon, six years ago. It is open for eight hours on Thursdays for parents, playcentre helpers, and kindergarten and primary schoolteachers to visit to collect bits and pieces. The centre, run by the Early Childhood Resource Centre, stocks wholesale art materials for educational groups. Organisations pay a $lO annual subscription to belong and then pay for materials they buy. A $2 donation lets “junk recyclers” loose in the Junk Shed at the back of the centre to carry off as much as they can. Much of the junk comes from factories, which

would otherwise throw out carpet, leather, fabric, rubber, and cotton waste and ends of rolls of paper and card. Plastic bits and pieces are also collected from factories. Other items are col-’ lected from rural areas and from anyone who has useable items to give. Part of Ms Staite’s job is to come up with ideas for using the junk to teach and stimulate children. She is a primary schoolteacher and mother. “That’s about the only training you can have for something like this,” she said. The centre has been in rented premises and has about three weeks to move out of its present rooms. Ms Staite said ideally the centre would like somewhere with enough space to spread out all of its junk so that visitors could see what was available.