Recycling Activities for Kids

Reduce. reuse. recycle. A motto I’m sure we are all very familiar with! In this article we will look at some super fun recycling activities for kids that you can get involved in and encourage your children to do their bit for the planet whilst having tons of fun. 

If your child enjoys craft activities and using recycled materials to make craft you may also want to consider taking them to a craft class where they use recycled items to make things. Take a look at our directory to see if there’s any Arts and Crafts classes by you which you do recycling activities for kids.

In London there is a kids club called the Puppet theatre they use recycled materials to make robots, animals, any character you like – and they’ll all perform in their handmade theatre, made of repurposed abandoned wood. Similarly there is a drama class in Birmingham called Toni Tots drama.

She collects cardboard toilet roll holders and each week makes puppets with them and masks which the children.

(A little boy at Toni Tots drama class shows us his puppet)

The Benefits include:

• Learning about the Environment – a viral  benefit of teaching children about recycling is to help them understand how their actions affect the environment. By teaching them how recycling affects the environment, they will make more conscious decisions when they are out in public.
• Developing Fine Motor Skills – The whole process of recycling requires some careful hand movements. It will help improve your child’s fine motor skills and coordination (we have lots of other activities and classes listed on our directory to help with this too ) 
• Improving Memory – recycling can also help improve children’s knowledge and memory skills. By teaching children how to remember the different types of recyclable materials, they will learn to retain information easier which is an advantage for them later in life.

Recycling activities for kids: Sorting 

One of the most basic yet fun recycling activities for kids is literally sorting out different types of recycling and deciding which bin it should go in. For example if you have a bag where only plastics can go then you can talk to your child about the different items that can go in that bag and they can chose all of the plastics and put them in the bag. 

Similarly if you have a box for glass bottles and jars they can help ensure the jars are clean and put them in the box. This can be a great way for children to learn more about materials. That different items have to be recycled separately. This could become one of their chores they do. If you have a bag of recycling let your child sort through and put the items in the right bag. 

So when looking at recycling activities for kids as well as learning the importance of recycling and how it can benefit the environment it’s a great way to get creative and have fun 

Recycling activities for kids: Play shop 

Here is another one of our fun recycling activities for kids. If you have a large cardboard box you could cut it out and create your very own play shop. You could use cartons and food boxes from the recycling to put in your play shop. This can be a really fun recycling activity for kids and educational too. 

Recycling activities for kids: Building a tower

So here is one of our very fun and simple Recycling activities for kids. Why not gather up some bottles, cardboard boxes and challenge your child to make a tower. They can stack the boxes on top of each other and make a tall fort. You could also use this to talk about the different 3D shapes. So for instance you could talk about cereal boxes being called cuboids and tubes being cylinders etc.

This is a great learning exercise for younger children. If your child wants to spend longer on the tower why not let them assemble a fort and allow them to use a few small toy figures to play inside the tower. This will keep your little ones entertained for ages!

Recycling activities for kids: Get creative with a box

Another one of our very simple yet effective recycling activities for kids is literally Fun with a cardboard box. A box can be one of the most versatile things. Your child could paint it, make it into an Animal or dragon like the photo above. It could be turned into a den! There are endless things that can be done. 

So before recycling the box maybe have some fun with it first:

• Cut up cereal boxes and create a puzzle for your children put together.
• Reuse jars by allowing children to practice opening and closing which can help them develop their fine motor skills
• Recycled cardboard tubes and cereal boxes make a super fun building set. 
• Coffee or paper cups can be used. Knock them down or stack them up
• Make a watering can from a recycled milk jug. 
• Reuse water, juice or fizzy drink bottles as bowling pins, use scrunched up scrap paper or newspaper for the bowling ball!
• Bottle caps can be recycled for lots of play
• Bottles for water play 
• Turn a large yogurt container into a bucket for sand play. 
• Make bookmarks from recycled cereal boxes. 
• Cut out lots of letters from cereal boxes for learning! 

We hope you have found some super fun recycling activities for kids to get involved in. It is so important to encourage your children to do their bit for the planet whilst having tons of fun.