Using a Reduce, reuse, and recycling activity for preschoolers or a lesson plan is a lot of fun for kids. Recycling has become an important part of most of our daily lives here on planet Earth to help our environment.
This recycling lesson plan for preschool and Earth Day lesson plan activity shows how recycling cuts down on the garbage in our landfill sites and helps clean the environment.
This recycling activity and lesson plan teaches all of us, young children and older ones the responsibility we have in taking action to reduce, reuse, and recycle for the Earth.
Earth Day is a great example of helping the environment and the Earth by making positive changes. This recycling activity for preschoolers works well as an Earth Day Theme for kids as well.
For some of us, when we were growing up, everything went into the garbage can. It may have taken us some time to get used to remembering to put our recyclable materials into the recycle bin so that they can be recycled and reused to cut down on waste in our landfills.
Using a fun, reduce-reuse recycling activity and lesson plan for kids we can learn how to explain recycling to preschoolers as well as all the facts about recycling and how it helps the earth, the air, the environment, and animals. Let’s help get the world recycling as much as we can!
Teaching preschool children and young kids the importance of recycling is a subject we can turn into a fun school classroom and recycling theme for preschool lesson plan activity for Earth Day. Together we can Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle.
(recycle resources, recycle songs, pre-school activities, etc. provided at the end of the recycling theme.)
Day 1
Start the week off by talking about Recycling as a morning circle-time lesson. Here are some questions you can ask the preschool or kindergarten children:
When learning about recycling for preschool, it’s a good idea to write down these recycling questions on a large piece of paper and record the children’s answers.
Post it up in the pre school or kindergarten classroom and at the end of your recycling theme or Earth Day theme activities, ask the same questions and note the difference in their answers as they become well-educated in the reasons why we recycle and how/what we can recycle.
Then you can introduce this pre-k recycling lesson plan using a fun storybook for preschool children. Some of these recycling books for preschoolers can be found online by going here.
Now the way we all recycle may vary from city to city or country to country so make sure you are teaching the rules of recycling that fit your local community.
Also learning the symbol for recycling can be introduced at this time as well.
Once you read a book that talks about recycling or Earth Day, it is a good idea to talk about what you just read to make sure the children have a basic understanding of this new subject.
You don’t want to overwhelm the pre k children so after the book, you may want to stop there for the first day and just place some books in the library for the kids in the classroom to look at and maybe have some recycling pictures/symbols posted on the wall.
Day 2
Read the same book as Day 1 at circle time, then do a quick review of what they learned the day before, and make sure you bring in a new clean recycling bin so the children can see what it looks like.
Then talk about what items and materials you put into recycling boxes. It’s important to keep it simple as these are preschool children and they just need to know the basics at this time.
Sing a recycling song to make remembering what we recycle fun: (*See recycle songs for kids below)
© preschoollearningonline.com
(sung to row your boat)
We recycle glass,
plastic, paper too,
Sort them out and bag them up,
In the box that’s blue.
(*if the recycling boxes/bins are a different color in your area, feel free to contact us and we can come up with a song for you.)
Now give the pre-school children a small task. Tell them that when they go home for the night, their job is to bring in one single item that they can recycle. Make sure you bring in one of each item the next day.
*Get more recycling songs for kids>
You can also see all the recycle songs and videos for preschool kids at the bottom of this page.
Day 3
Set your items on the ground in the middle of the carpet. Ask the children to set their materials with yours and everyone sit in a circle around it.
Now one by one, pick up an item, talk about what sort of material it is made of and ask them if it would go in a bag or in the box.
Note ~ paper products usually get placed in a plastic shopping bag and placed in the box, cans usually sit loose in the box, and plastic products usually get bagged in a separate bag then paper and placed in the box.
To look neat and have everything fit, place the bags inside the blue box on either side, and have the cans in between helping hold the bags up. Cardboard gets broken down and tied with twine or string and set beside the recycling box on the ground.
It would also be a good idea to talk about the importance of rinsing food out of containers so that way the box stays clean and no bugs or animals will get into the box and make a mess or spread disease.
Day 4
Read a different book about recycling.
Ask the children what they like to recycle.
*Set a recycle game for the children to play
*Set up dramatic play as a recycling theme
*Set up the sensory bin with different recyclable materials
*Set up a science recycle activity
Day 5
Go over the questions from day one and record their answers to see any differences.
Set out the empty recycling bin in a corner of the room where it is visible to everyone but out of the way of regular routine.
Mention to the children that whenever they are going to throw something out that can be recycled, to sort it in the recycling bin.
To have things ready for them, it is a good idea to put one of each item ready in the bin so the children can follow.
For example, put two bags in the bin. In one bag put a piece of paper, the other bag a plastic container, and put a can in the box in the middle of the bags. This way when the children put something in the recycle bin, they know where to put it.
Have the activities out from Day 4 so the children can have more time with them.
Keep the books in the library as long as you wish and the pictures up for a time as well. Don’t forget to display their recycled artwork pieces around the room for the children to look at.
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When using crafts as a recycling activity for preschoolers, you could find various items that would be placed in a typical household recycle box, or that are clean and currently in your blue box.
Now as long as there are no sharp edges on the materials, reuse them by telling the pre-school children they can make their own recycled art or crafts from the materials in the recycle box.
Explain to the kindergarten kids and preschoolers that this is one way we can reuse these materials.
They can use glue, googly eyes, pom poms, scissors, sparkles, etc. to make their creations.
Cut out pictures of different objects, some that can be recycled and some that cannot.
Cut out the shape of a recycling box out of blue construction paper (or whatever color your city uses) and a trash can out of grey or black construction paper.
The pre k children can sort out the items that can be recycled, and the things that cannot be.
Set out some recycling bins with paper, plastic, and tin cans. Fill some garbage bags with light materials like crunched up news paper and tie the bags up.
Put in some work gloves, construction hats, some chairs to resemble a truck unless you have a pretend car. The children can pretend to be recycling men/women or garbage men/women.
Post pictures on the wall to help set the theme and to give them ideas on what sorts of things they can do.
Place different items that can be recycled in the sensory bin to allow the children to explore all the different recyclable materials, what they feel like, what they look like etc. Place different shapes, sizes, textures, etc.
You can place things in the bin like:
Place all different recyclable materials on a table and provide one or two magnets.
The pre k children can see which materials get pulled by the magnet and which ones don’t.
Just ensure that the metal or tin objects (and even plastic) do not have sharp edges on them.
Let the preschool children or kindergarten kids sort out the different recyclable items from the pile of items.
You can use the below Recycling Songs for a Recycling Activity for preschoolers and as a related Lesson plan or theme for kids for Earth Day.
Use these kids’ songs below to help preschoolers and kindergarten children learn how they can Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle different items and how they help the Earth we all live on today.
All of these recycle songs work well with an Earth Day theme for kids as well.
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