2023-2024 Video Gallery

Category: 6-8

Description: The Florida Gopher Tortoise is a keystone species for Florida native wildlife. Although it's endangered, this species finds it's home in many habitats all around Florida. Our Gopher Tortoise is made up of paper mâché over balloon over a box with plastic bottle details (like the tail). We used the metal from the center button part of the ribbons and cut them into the shape of hexagons to fit over the surface of the shell. We spray painted fabric from the ribbons and draped it over the tortoise's body and feet. The surrounding environment is also made up of the ribbons cut in various ways. We used the green ribbon to make up the leaves of the palm tree and bush. We used brown ribbons for the tree trunk. We enjoyed working with these alternative materials. It was fun brainstorming about how stuff that was going to be thrown out could be made into something as awesome as this. So not all trash is really trash. It could actually be useful and stay out of a landfill.