FORT WAYNE, Ind. (WANE) – Croninger Elementary applied a unique twist to their Earth Day celebration. Parents of students were asked to preserve any paper towel rolls, metal cans, plastic bottles and shoe boxes in order to turn them into fun instruments.

The students turned these recycled items into plastic water bottle shakers, balloon drums and shoe box guitars.

Once finished, the students proceeded to decorate them before taking part in the Earth Day Jam where they played their instruments along with the Dumpster Drummers.

The event was inspired by the book “Ada’s Violin” that tells the story about kids in Paraguay who made recycled instruments in way of forming their group “Landfill Harmonic”.

The school was able to obtain English and Spanish copies of the book which was distributed to Spanish teachers throughout the school. The students were able to connect to the story by following along in their English copies while their teacher read aloud to them from their Spanish version.

The school hopes the students will take a core memory from the celebration and apply it in the future.