Last week my son brought home instructions for a school-wide project: Each family was to prepare a mask in honor of the upcoming holiday of Purim. To continue with the environmental theme, the masks were to be made of completely recyclable materials. Here are some of the criteria:

• Minimum size: 1 meter x 1 meter. Maximum size: 2 meters x 2 meters. So much for “less is more.”
• Good, stable, very strong gluing.
• Extensive use of recycled items.
• Paint only if necessary.
• The creation can follow the theme of a particular artist, contain an environmental message, revolve around a proverb, or whatever your imagination inspires.
• It’s important to involve as many members of the family as possible to talk about the importance of recycling.
• If it’s possible to work with joy, song, and laughter, mah tov. How good.

The teachers will grade the projects and choose ten winners each for first, second and third place. At the Purim carnival, parents can also award points to the projects. Worthwhile and respectable prizes will be awarded to the winners, and nice prices to the rest of the exhibitors.

Our biggest challenge was the large size, so we searched for boxes from the makolet (market) across the street. The box we wanted was damp from the rain. We cut it out into the shape of a water drop. The next day, I glued pieces of leftover packaging cardboard to the back to strengthen it. Then I glued old flyers to the front to make the background. You noticed the echoes of Mondrian, didn’t you?

Our theme revolves around ways to save water in the house. The “eye” on the left, an old CD (actually the annoying marketing CD the school sent before we applied), has little bits of fabric coming out from the side that are supposed to represent a spray of water. The caption reads “A water-saving device on each faucet.” The other “eye” is divided with a squiggly pipe-cleaner to represent a toilet flushing button containing two options, using all of the water in the tank or just half.

Below the eye on the right side, you can see spoons and a bottle of soap along with a bit of sponge as an ear. My kids insisted we use the sponge-ears on both sides. The caption reads, “Less soap = less rinse water.” The nose is from an egg carton (we actually give our egg trays back to the seller in the shuk) and the mouth is a bucket that says, “Save water for reuse.” My son enjoyed cutting up the little bits of blue cellophane.

On the left, notice the plant cut out of felt with the caption, “Grow plants that need little water.”

The bottom shows clothes cut out of fabric and a washing machine, with two captions: “Wash clothes with water from the bath,” and “Don’t clean clothes that aren’t dirty.”

Unless you count paper and fabric scraps leftover from other projects, the glue and the marker ink, which I also had in the house, were the only “new” items.

I admit (or maybe I shouldn’t!) that I was responsible for most of the concept and execution, but my seven-year-old son was involved all along the way. And we did have fun.

We called it by the alliterative name, Mayim Le-Machshavah, or “Water for Thought.”  You see, I’m a poet as well as an artist. Actually, I’m not, because my friend M. thought of that name.

We are now left with two burning questions: Will we win?
And, will the prizes be made in China?

Related posts:

Sukkah Project

Purim Costume–Not!

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