Recycling Activity For Preschoolers to Reduce Reuse

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.

Reduce Reuse Recycling Activity for Preschoolers Lesson Plans & Earth Day

(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:

• Does anyone know what it means to recycle?
• (If some answer yes to the question above you can ask)
• Does anybody recycle at home?
• What sorts of things can we recycle?
• Do you know why we recycle?

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.

Next, go over 5 main points as to why we

Reduce Reuse Recycle:

• • • • Recycling protects our valuable planet.
      • Recycling saves energy.
      • Recycling saves clean air and clean water.
      • Recycling saves landfill space.
      • Recycling can save money and create jobs.
      • Recycling can help the animals

Recycling Books for Preschool Lesson Plan:

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)

Recycle Song for Kids:

© 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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