How to Build a Milk Jug Igloo
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Instructions for Creating an Igloo with Recycled Plastic Milk Cartons
Igloos are cool. You can easily build an milk jug igloo in your classroom with some planning, lots of milk jugs and hot glue.
For example, the children in Classroom 1 at Midland Christian School (Midland, Michigan) built the 428-jug igloo shown here after collecting (and cleaning) milk cartons for about 3 weeks. This medium-sized igloo is large enough to hold about 8 to 10 kindergardeners or first graders during free reading time -- and a principal fits in there too. Total cost: about $12 for 80 glue sticks. The milk jug igloo provides all sorts of opportunities for links to social studies, math, science and reading topics (many of which are listed below).
A milk jug igloo is a great project for a classroom, nature center, library, Vacation Bible School, children't museum, daycare center, recycling center or dozens of other places that seek to inspire children.
Start by watching the video below to get an overview of how to build a milk jug igloo. Then check out the sections below for resources to add to your unit on snow, seasons, Winter, recycling or other topics.
For example, the children in Classroom 1 at Midland Christian School (Midland, Michigan) built the 428-jug igloo shown here after collecting (and cleaning) milk cartons for about 3 weeks. This medium-sized igloo is large enough to hold about 8 to 10 kindergardeners or first graders during free reading time -- and a principal fits in there too. Total cost: about $12 for 80 glue sticks. The milk jug igloo provides all sorts of opportunities for links to social studies, math, science and reading topics (many of which are listed below).
A milk jug igloo is a great project for a classroom, nature center, library, Vacation Bible School, children't museum, daycare center, recycling center or dozens of other places that seek to inspire children.
Start by watching the video below to get an overview of how to build a milk jug igloo. Then check out the sections below for resources to add to your unit on snow, seasons, Winter, recycling or other topics.
Video: How to Build a Milk Jug Igloo
Directions for building your own milk jug igloo.
curated content from YouTube
Practical Tips for Planning & Building a Plastic Igloo from Gallon Jugs
Here are some things to keep in mind.
This is what we learned when building a milk jug igloo for the classroom:
- Promote Jug Collection - Our milk jug igloo took more than 400 milk jugs. That's a lot of milk -- and orange juice, water and so forth. We put up posters signed by the children and inserted a notice in the school's print and e-newsletters in order to get the entire school of 100 students to help the collection effort. In addition our teenage sons liberated milk jugs from recycling bins in various areas of the city during their appointed recycling day. A parent also helped out by collecting jugs daily from a local coffee shop, which was an excellent source. It took us 3 weeks to get all the jugs we needed.
- Wash Jugs Well - You'll want to wash the jugs well as they arrive, or your classroom will begin to smell pretty bad -- and you'll be teaching a lesson on microbiology instead of snow. We strung the jugs in groups of 10 and stored them in a corner of the room.
- Use a Cardboard Base - Using a cardboard box as a base will give your igloo stability as you glue the first row down. You can get a large box from your local big box or appliance store on delivery day. A refrigerator box works well.
- Use HIGH TEMPERATURE Hot Glue - You'll need a HIGH temperature hot glue gun and HIGH temperature hot glue to put everything together. The Inuit call it an "iglu," which is appropriate because you'll use lots of hot glu. We used about 80 long sticks, which cost about $12. We only had a low temperature gun, so we had to buy a new dual temperature gun. That was about $14 on sale. So our total igloo investment was under $25. Because of the dangers of getting burned, the children played a limited role in the actual construction, but there was still plenty for them to do with counting, graphing, making patterns out of the lids, washing and so forth.
- Collect Extra Caps - Most milk jugs we collected didn't come with their lids. You may want to start early collecting just caps so that you have enough to make patterns and decorate the final result.
- It Takes Time - We built a few rows a day,mostly after school, then more on weekends. It likely took 12 man hours total for the size of igloo we built, which easily holds 8-10 first graders.
Educational Tips for Igloos in Education
A milk jug igloo is a vehicle for teaching many subjects & skills.
- Pre-plan Your Entire Unit - Your igloo will be part of "a complete breakfast." In other words, it will complement the unit that you are teaching.--whether it's snow, Winter, seasons, geography & cultures, ecology or some other topic. The more you build an interesting unit, the more impact you'll have on achieving your learning objectives. There are all sorts of extra resources listed below. Please add additional ideas using the Feedback area so everyone can benefit from your good ideas.
- Place an Emphasis on Reading - Your completed igloo will be great for a reading nook, so you'll want to make a special emphasis on what you read as you collect jugs and build your igloo. There are some great ideas listed below. In addition to numerous picture books, many of which the first graders could read themselves, my wife read Mr. Popper's Penguins, which is a classic chapter books suited for this age range.
- There's Lots of Opportunity for Math - Counting, counting by tens, graphing, estimating, patterns (with the multi-colored caps) and so forth. At which store do most families buy their milk?
See Examples of Milk Jug Igloos
These links were collected during our research.
- Mrs. Meacham's Classroom Igloo
- Mrs. Meacham's Classroom - Lots of nice photos of a 535-milk jug igloo.
- Kaleb Headley's Igloo
- The Headley Family built a milk jug igloo in their backyard with 227 jugs. It took a lot of time to save milk jugs and they eventually called for help from their homeschool network.
- Igloo instructions on eHow
- Erin Ringwald gives some instructions on building a milk jug igloo for kindergartners.
- Little Giraffes Teacher Ideas
- Photos of a small, 155-jug igloo from Mrs. Flanagan's kindergarden class.
- Benimoto's Igloo with Penguins on Flickr
- A nice, smaller milk jug igloo with lifesize penquin cutouts.
Have You Built a Milk Jug Igloo?
Point us to your URL or tell us your experience.
Tell us about your experience or leave us feedback. Make sure to rate this lens at the top of this page or Tweet your find to your friends using the link below.
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fullofshoes
May 27, 2012 @ 10:55 am | delete
- Never seen anything like this before and it's wonderfully creative! ~blessed~
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KayeSI Apr 9, 2012 @ 8:24 pm | delete
- What a fun idea for grandparents and grandchildren as well! And so educational! We've been learning about the Inuits - this could make a fun summer project.
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Beth
Apr 4, 2012 @ 8:52 am | delete
- I am wondering if anyone has used the small plastic jugs that come with Kool-Aid type drinks in them. It would make an igloo small enough to use for dolls maybe, in a place too small to use the full-size milk jugs.
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Sue
Mar 31, 2012 @ 5:39 pm | delete
- My church did this on a Christmas float. We used them also on bottom of float. We put clear Christmas lights inside of jugs. It looked just like ice. Our theme was Happy Feet. We won 1st place in church divison and the Grand Marshall divison. Some people come out of the parade and asked what it was made out of. We also had a fishing pond out of jugs also. Santa was going into igloo, all you saw was his rear.
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jimmyworldstar
Feb 4, 2012 @ 11:22 pm | delete
- I can't figure out how you could make them stack without falling without using glue. I wonder if that's even possible?
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Googleeyes
Jan 12, 2012 @ 10:50 pm | delete
- I am in the process of creating this igloo which I think is fantastic. Did you move the jugs in about an inch when you placed each row or did they just fall that way?
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WarrenAllanJohnson Jan 13, 2012 @ 7:34 am | delete
- There was a natural curvature to the milk jugs when they were placed with the mouth to the inside of the igloo. We may have moved in slightly as we got to the middle and higher rows, but to be honest, it just seemed to work out.
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Googleeyes
Jan 13, 2012 @ 10:26 pm | delete
- Thanks. I'll post a picture when I am done. Kids are so excited.
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Jodie
Jan 7, 2012 @ 12:39 pm | delete
- AMAZING!! I love this idea.
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- Many people ask what happened to the milk jug igloo when we were done. We were able to tear it apart, stomp the jugs flat and haul them to the local recycling center. They filled up a minivan, but we got them there.
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Iglus in the News
Media coverage about milk jug igloos.
Building an Igloo, Jug by Jug - Angie Grayson's first-grade class at Fairlawn Elementary School (Evansville, IN) spent three months drinking a lot of milk to build this 499-jug igloo.
Library Builds Igloo to Celebrate Visit by Author - Otsego County Library in Gaylord, Michigan built a milk jug igloo to celebrate a visit by author Jan Brett.
Milk Jug Igloo by Theresa Primary Pre-K - The Theresa (NY) Primary Pre-K Class built an igloo with the help of their teachers, Mrs. Rotundo, Ms. Cole and Mrs. Hancock. This one looks a bit tall for the pre-K children, but their teachers likely fit in there well.
Cooper West kindergarten class uses milk carton igloo to emphasize fun, importance of reading - Erin Hill's kindergarten students at Lubbock-Cooper West Elementary (Lubbock, TX) enjoy selecting books and crawling inside an igloo to read them because reading is cool. This igloo fits six children and their teacher, is the class reading center and also a place for small-group instruction, she said.
The Lesson House: Igloo helps students learn lessons in kindness, manners, math & the seasons - The experience of collecting the milk jugs and building the igloo helped a class in Midland, Michigan learn about the New Testament teaching on "fruits of the Spirit" -- specifically kindness.
Declo student building massive milk-jug igloo - A massive, 1600-jug igloo at Dworshak Elementary School (Burley, Idaho) will be large enough to fit a classroom of 35 students inside and may qualify as the world's largest milk jug igloo. It was started by Declo High School student Adam Rowe as a community service project.
Milk Jug Igloo Pictures from Flickr
Tag your igloo photos as described below to appear in this 'Hall of Igloo Fame.'
If you have Milk Jug Igloo photos on Flickr, here's how to appear in the "Hall of Igloo Fame" shown below: 1) Tag your photos with the words 'Milk Jug Igloo,' 2) Set your viewing to "everyone," and 3) Set your licensing to "Attribution Creative Commons." Your photo will show up here!
Thank you for showing off your hard work, as well as to letting the world study your example of a plastic milk carton igloo. Make sure to tell your friends and relatives to see your igloo photo posted here.
automatically generated by Flickr
Get the Supplies You'll Need
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It's Not about the Igloo
Teaching ideas & educational resources to build your unit.
The following resources will help you build your unit. There are books, DVDs, and many other items that you can use to make an engaging and educational unit to complement your milk jug igloo.
Igloo Activity Sheets
Igloo coloring pages, worksheets, bulletin board and such.
Recommend other sites we should add using the feedback box at the bottom of the page.
- Igloo Dot-to-dot
- Those last few dots are tricky. They double back.
- Google Search for Igloo Coloring Sheets
- Pick from all these options for igloo coloring pages.
- Igloo Coloring Sheet with Ruled Line
- Copy the word igloo into the ruled area.
- Color the igloo
- A nice coloring sheet.
- Drawings of How Inuit Build an Snow Shelter
- Step-by-step illustrations of how to build a igloo snow shelter.
- Igloo Song with Motions
- See Activity #5 for the igloo song.
Lapbook & Interactive Notebook Resources
Imerse your students in the topic through construction of these information books.
How Inuit Boys Learn to Build Real Igloos
This is a great video about real igloos.
curated content from YouTube
Nanook of the North
A famous 1922 documentary of the Inuit Eskimos
One of the earliest film documentaries was Nanook of the North by Robert Flaherty in 1922. The silent film documented the life of the traditional Inuit in Canada, showing ice fishing, hunting walrus and seal, trapping, building an igloo and trading pelts at a trading post. A short clip of the movie is available on YouTube.
Nanook of the North (The Criterion Collection)
Amazon Price: $18.79 (as of 06/03/2012)
Our hero Nanook builds an igloo in this film, runs a dog sled, paddles a kayak, as well as hunts for seal, walrus and more. A bit risque at one point in a National Geographic way.
Chilren's Books about Eskimo, Inuit & Igloos
Picture books and such to read aloud.
Click through to conveniently order any of these resources on the world's largest bookstore, Amazon.com.
Mr. Popper's Penguins
The perfect chapter book to read while building an igloo.
Of course penguins live at the south pole and polar bears and igloos are at the north pole, but what unit on Winter would be complete without reading "Mr. Popper's Penguins?" Fortunately, there are all sorts of helpful tools to integrate this book into your lesson plans and even a CD for an audio reading station.
More Penguin Picture Books
Penguins are fun to watch at a zoo too. Second only to polar bears.
Polar Bear Books
Technically more accurate than penguins for living near igloos.
Studying the Seasons
Winter Picture Books
Some are available in paperback at a slightly lower cost.
Picture Books about Winter Clothing
Why is it that you have to teach children to wear and keep track of their winter clothes?
These are classic books about winter.
Winter Teacher Resources on eBay
Click through to view descriptions and bid on items.
Teacher Snow Resources on eBay
You know how this works.
More Lenses about Winter & Snow
Find resources & ideas with these Winter snow links.
A Silly Igloo Building Song
Don't let this ditty get stuck in your head!
The weather outside is frightful,
But reclycling makes igloos delightful.
Since we've no place to go,
Let's watch the milk jugs grow!
Let 'em grow, let 'em grow, let 'em grow!
But reclycling makes igloos delightful.
Since we've no place to go,
Let's watch the milk jugs grow!
Let 'em grow, let 'em grow, let 'em grow!
After Reuse, Then Recycle
Here's what happens when it comes time to recycle your milk jug igloo.
The three steps of recycling are reduce, reuse and recycle. After you're done enjoying your milk jug igloo (reuse), you'll want to recycle the plastic cartons. This video shows how jugs are ground up, remelted and, in this case, made into fence posts.
curated content from YouTube
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