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👉 Members get full access to the complete Theme Planning Guide, printable activities, and step-by-step activity guides for this theme.
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Painting with Recyclables
Set out some paint and recyclables for children to create anything they like. This is a great time to explore how different tools can create unique designs!
Another fun creativity idea is to invite your preschooler to create 3D art using recyclables. View Member Instructions |
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DIY Watercolors
Save those dried up markers to reuse!
Sheena W. of Building Blocks Family Child Care contributed this photo. She placed dried up markers in a plastic bottle then filled with water. She paired them with droppers for her preschoolers to use for painting. View Member Instructions |
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*Make Your Own Crayons
Get creative with your preschoolers with these DIY crayons! Handmade with love, these vibrant colors will ignite their imaginations and make learning even more fun.
View the Blog Post or View Member Instructions |
Try this!
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*Coffee Filter Earth
Mix blue water color paint and green water color paint in small jars of water. Lay out coffee filters on trays for easy clean up. Invite children to use pipettes to suck up blue and green and drop the color on their coffee filter to create Earth!
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Decorate a Reusable Shopping Bag
Create a unique reusable shopping bag. Gather some canvas shopping bags, assorted color markers or paint pens, cardboard pieces (cut to fit into each bag to keep the markers/pens from bleeding through). Place cardboard pieces inside each bag and begin coloring your design! Let dry and then you can take the beautiful bag with you whenever you go shopping to help reduce plastic use!
View Member Instructions |
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Paper Towel Art
Create fun art pieces using paper towels!
You will need: -Paper towel -Black permanent marker -Colored washable markers -Scissors -Shallow dish of water Fold paper towel in half and then cut in half creating two pieces that look like a book. On one of the books use the permanent black marker to draw a design, allowing it to bleed through to the piece underneath. Next, open the book and color the impression left from page 1. Close the book and place in the shallow dish of water. The black and white design will be magically colored! Remove and let dry. View Member Instructions |
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Making Maracas
Engage little learners with this fun and educational Maracas Craft! Perfect for preschool teachers, this hands-on activity will enhance motor skills while introducing the joy of music. Let creativity flow as children decorate their own maracas and experience the magic of rhythm.
View the Blog Post or View Member Instructions |
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Tin Can Drums
Collect different sized tin cans to create drums. Decorate your drums with leftover art scraps, felt, tape, stickers, etc.
View Member Instructions |
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Recycled Houses Art
Provide plain cardboard, scissors, and markers for children to create houses with. Cutting cardboard is a big workout for those little hands, so consider having some extras already cut for when their hands get tired.
View Member Instructions |
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Easily set up your own Recycling Center for Dramatic Play using the printables from the Pre-K Printable Fun Recycling Center and Repair Clinic Dramatic Play Pack. Pair the printables with a variety of bins and recyclable materials for children to practice what they have learned about recycling. See more ways to set up this invitation to play on my Recycling Center and Repair Clinic Dramatic Play blog post.
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Recycling Center Dramatic Play Pack
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Gardening and Composting
Set up a pretend play garden, and learn more about growing fruits, and vegetables and composting. Our Friend Erica created this garden! She placed pool noodles inside a box, attached garden edging, and covered the noodles with brown fabric dirt. View Member Instructions
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Explore our Recycling Center and Repair Clinic Dramatic Play set, designed for easy setup and guaranteed enjoyment for preschoolers! As dedicated educators, we recognize the significance of teaching kids about environmental responsibility. This resource offers hours of imaginative play, featuring a printable recycling center with labeled bins for paper, plastic, and glass, along with forms, signs, and a decorative bunting.
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Materials to Add to this Space
While learning all about Earth Day & Recycling add some fun and interesting materials to your building and small world space. Save up some recycled materials such as cardboard tubes, empty bottles, and a variety of lids for children to build with. For small world play include some recycling trucks, small people, and small containers that can be used as recycling bins.
Consider making your own DIY mini recycling bins to enhance this play as a craft project this week with your preschooler. View Member Instructions |
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Build with Recyclables
While learning all about Earth Day & Recycling add some fun and interesting materials to your building and small world space. Save up some recycled materials such as cardboard tubes, empty bottles, and a variety of lids for children to build with. For small world play include some recycling trucks, small people, and small containers that can be used as recycling bins. Consider making your own DIY mini recycling bins to enhance this play as a craft project this week with your preschooler.
View Member Instructions |
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*Build a Tower with Recycled Materials
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*Recycled Town
Add a variety of recycled materials, scissors, tape, glue, etc. in the building center. Invite children to build a town with the recycled materials. Help children brainstorm different buildings and structures they could build in their Recycle Town! View Member Instructions
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*Earth Day 3-Part Cards
Celebrate Earth Day with this engaging preschool activity! These 3-part cards will teach your little ones about the importance of taking care of our planet. With beautiful real-life images, they will learn about recycling, planting trees, and conserving water. A fun and educational way to instill environmental awareness! Buy Now
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Buy this activity pack!
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Write an Earth Day StoryUse the writing template included in my Earth Day & Recycling Activity Pack to create your own story about Earth Day. For preschoolers not ready to write encourage them to draw the illustration and dictate the story do an adult.
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Buy this activity pack!
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Recycle Name Collage
Put out a variety of recycled materials. Have children form each letter of their name using the recycled materials to create a fun name collage! This activity is great for practicing letter formation as well as name and letter identification. View Member Instructions
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*Flip and Find Recycling Letter Mat
Teach your preschooler about recycling while developing letter recognition and fine motor skills with these fun and engaging flip and find recycling letter match mats. Perfect for an eco-friendly learning experience! Buy Now
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Buy this activity pack!
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Search for the Recycling SymbolEnvironmental print is an important part of learning to read. Everywhere children go there are signs and print to spot; children can easily recognize restaurant logos, food packaging, street signs and more.
Introduce the Recycling Symbol to your preschoolers and talk about the Recycling Trilogy. Then challenge your preschoolers to find the symbol in real life! You can provide a bin of recyclables for this project or go on a scavenger hunt. Soon your preschooler will be recognizing this symbol everywhere they go! |
Included in our Recycling and Repair Clinic Dramatic Play Pack
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Going Green Learning SongListen to the song “Going Green” and learn about different ways we can keep the Earth clean. Work on recalling ways to keep Earth clean through discussion and replaying the song. Listen to it on YouTube here.
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*Recycling Counting Mat 1-20
Teach your little ones about recycling and counting with this fun, printable activity! Perfect for preschoolers, this mat allows them to practice counting from 1 to 20 while learning about the importance of recycling. Print, laminate, and use again and again for hours of educational fun. A must-have for any preschool classroom or homeschooling environment!
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Buy this activity pack!
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Beach Clean-Up CountingTeach your little ones about the importance of ocean conservation with this engaging beach clean-up counting activity printable for preschoolers. They'll have a blast counting and matching the sea creatures while learning valuable lessons about keeping our beaches clean. Buy Now
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Buy this activity pack!
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Sort Cans by Size & Color
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Buy this activity pack!
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*Recycle Roll & SortTeach your little ones about recycling with this fun and educational Printable Preschool Activity! Watch as they roll and sort different recyclable items into the correct bins, developing fine motor skills and eco-consciousness. A fantastic way to make learning engaging and meaningful. Buy Now
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Buy this activity pack!
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Sort Recyclables by 3D Shape
Provide recycled materials for children to sort by 3D shape (Cylinders, Rectangular Prism, Cube, etc). View Member Instructions
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Weigh Recycled Items
Gather a variety of recycles items. Weigh each of the recycled items to discover which are heavier and which are lighter using a scale. Have children make predictions about what items are heavy or light.
View Member Instructions |
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Make Your Own Paper
This activity is great to include in your Earth Day and Recycling Theme since creating your own paper is all about reusing materials and producing less waste. This project supports preschoolers in understanding the idea of taking something old and turning it into something new, and, it's a pretty cool experience!
View the Blog Post or View Member Instructions |
Try this!
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*Recycle or Compost?
Teach your little ones the importance of recycling and composting with this engaging printable activity! Perfect for preschoolers, these sorting pages will help develop their eco-consciousness while having fun. Get your copies today! Buy Now
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Buy this activity pack!
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Start a Worm Farm
Engage your little learners with a hands-on DIY Worm Farm project! Teach them the wonders of nature, recycling, and responsibility while having fun exploring the world beneath our feet. Perfect for preschool classrooms!
View Member Instructions |
Try this!
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Shredded Paper Sensory Bin
Fill up your sensory bin with shredded newspaper this week. You can toss in other small recycled materials for children to explore such as cardboard tubes to push the paper through, plastic bottles to fill and a variety of lids to explore. View Member Instructions
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Soda Bottle Composter
Use a large clear soda bottle or similar container to create a compost bin that children can observe. Encourage preschoolers to draw what they see and talk about the changes they observe on a daily basis.
View Member Instructions |
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*Recycling Clip and Count CardsThese Count and Clip Cards are perfect for little learners! Help your preschooler practice counting and number recognition with this fun and engaging activity. Simply count the objects on each card and clip the correct answer. Great for developing fine motor skills too! Get your printable copy now. Buy Now
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Buy this activity pack!
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*Recycle Relay Race
Kids work in teams to sort recyclable items into bins, racing against the clock. They learn the importance of recycling, practice sorting skills, and get exercise! View Member Instructions
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Buy this activity pack!
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Earth Day Scavenger Hunt
Put together an Earth Day or Nature Themed Scavenger Hunt.
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Backyard Scavenger Hunt
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Earth Fine Motor Sweeping Mat
This Earth Sweeping Mat printable preschool activity is a perfect way to teach little ones about the importance of keeping our planet clean. They'll have a blast sweeping away pollution and making the Earth shine!
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How I Care for EarthAfter learning about what it means to care for our planet, challenge your preschoolers to talk about ways they already care for Earth and new things they can do. Decide on three new things that you can do together to better the environment. View Member Instructions
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Learn About the Recycling CommunityTake some time to learn about the professionals in our community that help with recycling. This might include visiting a recycling center or taking a virtual field trip to a recycling center (find a link to one in the materials section. Your library is a wonderful unexpected resource for this theme! They often have ideas for crafts that use recyclable material and of course fun book suggestions. View Member Instructions
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List Ways to Keep the Earth Clean
During circle time or as a group, help children brainstorm ways that we can keep the earth clean. Some answers might include: recycling, reducing what we use, composting, picking up litter, etc. You can enhance the activity by creating visuals of their answers that you can keep hung up in the classroom during your Earth Day study!
View Member Instructions |
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Go on a Neighborhood Clean UpTake the children from a walk around the neighborhood to help clean up litter. Give students plastic dish washing gloves or medical gloves and trash bags. Stop and point out litter that you see and have one child pick it up and put it in their bag. Talk about all of the things they cleaned up from their walk. You can extend the activity by talking about how we can prevent litter from happening.
View Member Instructions |
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Up cycle Ideas for Your Space
Early Childhood Educators are always on the lookout for new and engaging activities and materials for their students that fit in their educator budget.
Here are some resources for DIY and Recycling materials to create learning activities and spaces for preschoolers. View Member Instructions |
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Break Out the Sidewalk ChalkHopefully April means it's starting to warm up where you are. If so break out the sidewalk chalk!
This is a great way to teach children to create without needing to use new materials. Use the Sidewalk Chalk Roll & Write set with your chalk to support children in letter recognition and formation. |
Buy this activity pack!
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Reuse Your Printables
If you use printables as a teaching tool consider laminating your materials. Laminating your printables means they can be used time and time again without the need to reprint. Being able to use your printables with multiple children and even year-after-year is better for the environment and for your pocket book!
All you need is a simple laminator (nothing fancy) and some pocket laminating sheets. |
Laminate Printables to Re-use! Recycling Center Dramatic Play
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