Students proudly pose with their 4 by 8 foot pointillism
piece they created entirely from old liquid detergent
bottle caps - non-recyclable plastic that would
otherwise end up in a landfill.
Photographer: Laura Kurella
Often, elementary school teachers have a way of
collecting “things” in the hopes of one day using
them in school projects. Trinity, Sturgis teachers
are no different, in fact, this year’s Earth Day proj­
ect was born from one such collection - a collec­
tion of colorful liquid laundry detergent caps.
“They look a little like jelly beans,” Jean Kyle,
the second grade teacher remarked. “And, since
they cannot be recycled, I thought there had to be
something we could do with them.”
Then one day, in what seemed like a coinci­
dence, Mrs. Kyle stumbled upon the “Picture
Lady” program, which was introducing George
Seurat, an artist who uses the pointillism method
of painting.
“Maybe each laundry cap could represent a dot
of paint!” Mrs. Kyle thought.
So, with Earth Day only a few weeks away,
Mrs. Kyle sprang into action and invited the entire
school to join in a giant, Earth Day art project that
would use liquid detergent caps to create a giant
piece of art.
“For four weeks we enthusiastically collected
detergent caps from the church families and school
families, and even local Laundromats,” Mrs. Kyle
said. “Then we enlisted the help of a local artist
to develop a design.”
Using design ideas submitted by all the students
in grades 1-8, a landscape design was graphed onto
a 4’ by 8’ sheet of plywood. Washing and drying
of all the caps was necessary and then came the fun
of gluing down hundreds of caps!
“The interesting point was that all the while we
were gluing and even after we were finished, we
still couldn’t really see the picture we were creat­
ing,” Mrs. Kyle said. “We had to install the art­
work on the front lawn of the Trinity complex and
stand far away before the picture would ‘pop out’!”
Trinity’s “cap-tivating” art, which was created
using over 700 liquid detergent caps, is currently
on display on the church’s front lawn. Photos of
the project can also be viewed by visiting www.
trinitysturgis.com.
Laura Kurella is an Administrative Assistant at
Trinity, Sturgis.
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