Welcome to the world of recycling through play! Here you will find a variety of fun and educational activities to teach children the importance of recycling and caring for our planet.

Through interactive games, creative crafts and exciting experiments, children will learn how to reduce, reuse and recycle in a conscious, exciting and entertaining way.

Get ready for an adventure full of fun and learning while you teach the little ones to become defenders of the environment. Because playing is always the best way to learn. Let’s make a difference!

The importance of recycling for children

Recycling is a fundamental action to care for and preserve our planet. Therefore, it is essential to teach children from childhood about the importance of recycling, as they will be responsible for the future and must learn to be aware of their impact on the environment.

Recycling not only contributes to the conservation of natural resources, it also reduces the amount of waste generated and prevents water, air and soil pollution. In addition, by recycling, children learn the value of responsibility and respect for the environment in which they live. Encouraging children to recycle is an effective way to instill in them values and habits that will allow them to be committed and conscious citizens in the future.

To facilitate this learning, we want to do our bit with ideas of games to play with the little ones, so that through play they begin to become aware of the importance of caring for the environment. Attention!

Fun ideas for learning and having fun with recycling

Animals with toilet paper rolls

Cool animals with cardboard egg cups

Additional inspiration and incredible ideas

We encourage you to check out Juliane Jakubek‘s profile : @diekindergartenpaedagogin. Juliane has an extensive collection of videos where she shows how to make crafts using recycled and reused materials. Her ideas are not only creative and fun, but also teach children the importance of caring for the environment while developing their manual and artistic skills.

juegos con reciclaje ninos edited 2 - Learning to recycle while playing: fun activities for children
reciclaje manualidades ninos edited 2 - Learning to recycle while playing: fun activities for children

Another of our favorite accounts is Go Green Kids: @gogreen.kids. Lucia shows a lot of super ingenious and creative ideas to make with reused and recycled materials, so that children can learn and have fun. From matching games, to options to work on colors, numbers and fine motor skills.

In turn, Estefi Machado: @blog.estefi.machado, is a great source of inspiration on crafts, motherhood, sustainability and travel. Her proposals always appeal to imagination, nature and creativity.

juegos materiales reciclados para ninos 1 edited - Learning to recycle while playing: fun activities for children
actividad materiales reciclados ninos edited 2 - Learning to recycle while playing: fun activities for children

Natalia Ovejero, @elmundo.en.mispies, shares her family life, from travels, to her day to day life, places, and in many occasions she makes or tests activities with recycled or reused material.

Some of our recommendations:

Incredible recycling games

Tetris egg cups

To do this you need two boxes of approximately 30 eggs each. Paint one of them white, and with the other box of eggs you will make the pieces by cutting them exactly like the different figures that the original game has.

Finally, paint them in different colors (red, green, purple, blue…) and you will be able to fit them into the egg carton painted white, so you can start playing.

Marbles in your tree

For this game you need a 30cmx40cm cardboard, you will have to cut some oval holes on the sides (they will simulate handles), and some marbles.

In the middle of the cardboard draw a 20cmx20cm square so you can draw a tree inside it. Cut small holes in the tree to put the marbles in. Then cut 4 pieces of wood of 20cm to create a frame that will prevent the marbles from slipping out or getting lost.

To play you just have to move the tree until all the marbles fit into the holes.

Set with glasses and a pin pon

For this game you will need 25cmx6cm cardboard strips, 4 triangles of 8x6x6cm, 4 small paper cups and a ping pong ball.

Glue the 4 strips of cardboard with silicone to form a square. Then glue the 4 triangles in each corner to make it firm. You will form a kind of frame. Now glue a glass on each side with silicone, and that’s it. It will look like a square wheel.

The children can rotate our invention in different positions and move the ping pong ball from one cup to another just by the movements. The child will be able to put the ping pong ball into the cups by turning the square.

Put your chips in!

You will need a 30x49cm cardboard, two 49x4cm strips, and two 30x4cm strips that you will have to glue to the sides of the cardboard with glue or silicone to form a box that will simulate the field hockey field.

You will also need another 29x6cm strip with a square cutout in the middle, to fit the chips to be played with. Glue the strip with silicone in the middle of the box we formed before.

On the sides of each “field” we will make a hole respectively, to place a rubber band. The rubber band will be fastened with a clip, but first we will pass it through the holes. The clip is used to keep the rubber band in place. Repeat this action on the other side of the box.

Now it’s time to choose tokens, choose bottle caps, 3 of one color and 3 of another color. Place the lids of each color on their respective sides and use the rubber to throw them at the same time. The player who gets all his pieces in the opponent’s field wins.

Create your words

You will need a toilet roll, and a 15x15cm cardboard. In the middle of the cardboard you will have to make a hole the same size as the roll. Glue the roll on top of the hole and cover it with a plastic cup, gluing it with silicone.

Collect some metal plates (from beer bottles, coke or other soft drinks) and write different letters on the bottom. Place them inside the roll and with small movements place them around the glass.

With a popsicle stick and a magnet glued to it, you can pull out the little plates of the invention to form words.

Basket the marble

For this game you will need a 22x44cm cardboard and circles of 7 cm in diameter. Paint them in Pac-Man colors and make a cut as if it were a mouth.

Then make a small hole in each of them to hold some hooks. Add some eyes to give fun and credibility to the figures.

Cut 2x2cm squares of cardboard to give them a little height, and thread the hooks through so that the circles are held in place on the large cardboard base. Glue a popsicle stick to the top of the cardboard base.

Then make a small round basket with a toilet roll and make a base of the same diameter, glue them together and then with silicone glue the basket on the bottom of the cardboard, ready to play!

Take marbles and pass them from mouth to mouth until you reach the basket.

Order your worms

Print on a sheet of paper 3 sides of a worm in different colors, and look for covers of the same colors.

Draw 3 circles under each side, simulating the worm’s body. Disorder the lids and the children will have to order each lid to the color that corresponds without lifting the caps and leaving only one hole without a cap.

Here you can see better how to make these fun games by reusing things we all have around the house:

The 3Rs of recycling: Reduce, reuse and recycle

The 3Rs of recycling – reduce, reuse and recycle– are fundamental principles for promoting efficient waste management and contributing to environmental conservation. These actions not only help to minimize the negative impact on the planet, but can also generate economic and social benefits.

  • Reduce: We can choose to buy products with less packaging, use reusable bags instead of disposable plastic ones, avoid food waste and opt for durable products instead of disposable ones.
  • Reuse: Many items that we consider as garbage can have other uses. For example, glass containers can be used as food containers, plastic bottles can become flower pots or containers for storing liquids, and the same goes for clothes, they can be destined to charities or sold on second-hand platforms.
  • Recycling: To do this, it is necessary to separate waste correctly and deposit it in the corresponding containers. Recycling saves natural resources, reduces pollution and reduces the amount of waste sent to landfills. By recycling, new products can be obtained from materials such as paper, glass, plastic and metal.

Reducing, reusing and recycling allow us to reduce waste generation, make the most of resources and contribute to the conservation of our planet . Remember, every little action counts and we can all do our part for a more sustainable world. Opt for extracurricular activities in which your children develop these values and this awareness of their environment.