We love playing with the kids. And we love making sure that what we play is also helping to teach them something. So what better activity for home, home education or school than reduce reuse recycle games to help your kids to understand more about the environment, and how we can help and support it? There are loads of online games for recycling out there you can play alongside this hands on activity too. Why not encourage the kids to try our activity alongside some of these to educate and entertain them? This activity includes a sorting game. Tom and Jerry need help with sorting their rubbish in an online river clean up online. The perfect combination for hands on and online fun in partnership!
If you want more recycling ideas, check out our free recycling for kids coloring book as well. This is another awesome complementary activity to go alongside these reduce reuse recycle games ideas for your class, you or your family.
What is included within the reduce reuse recycle games for kids pack?
We like to insure we are sharing with you all the images of what we have for you in our activity packs. Here are the first few pages for you to take a look at:
Reduce reuse recycle ideas
Our first activity sheet, excluding the cover sheet, gives your children, or the class, the chance to think about the definitions of these activities, and come up with your own ways of doing some of these things. Reducing, reusing and recycling are three of the most important ways that we can reduce the strain on the planet. It’s important to encourage everyone to think about them as part of the everyday.
Thinking of ways to change our waste and composting
For our next two sheets, think about some of the materials that are around you, at home, outside, or in your school. Take a picture of them, and then re-imagine them as something of greater value than the original item. Is this realistic? Do you think people have done this before? What new and exciting things can you create from the simple items that you have in your house?
After this activity, the next of our reduce reuse recycle games is a fabulous composting activity. Put the names within the circle of all the items that are compostable.
What would you do with the items that aren’t compostable to further reduce waste?
Recycling sorting activity
This is a wonderfully simple idea, but LOADS of fun for the kids. We have SIX bins that we have created. Cut out all the items within the recycling activity sheets, and place them into the correct bins. This is so much fun, and helps children to understand what goes where within the household sorting.
The bins we are are:
- E-Waste,
- Paper,
- Plastic,
- Glass,
- Organic, and
- Metal.
It might be that the children don’t know what E-Waste is – if not, get them to research it, and then add the relevant items to their bins!
Why is it important to use these reuse reduce recycle games?
We can teach kids about sustainability or recycling in loads of different ways, but why use these online and hands on activities instead?
- Igniting their imagination: These games help to bring the concept of ‘reduce, reuse, recycle’ to life. By turning these principles into playful activities, we can inspire children to dream up creative solutions for waste management.
- Fun learning: Let’s face it, lessons about sustainability can sometimes feel a bit dry. But when we inject energy into the mix through games, we make learning about the 3Rs (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle) a laughter-filled adventure. Who knew saving the planet could be so fun?
- Interactive education: Games are interactive by nature, which means kids aren’t just passively absorbing information – they’re actively participating in the learning process. This hands-on approach can help them better understand and remember the importance of reducing, reusing, and recycling. Take the online game where Tom and Jerry are cleaning up the river. This is a real world problem, where fun online characters are helping out. The perfect way to inspire a child!
- Vivid visuals: These games use visuals to engage your children. For example, the children are sorting their pretend items made from paper, into the trash bins they made! This is engaging, and it helps to visually reinforce the concept of separating recyclables. Kids learn through the re-enforcement of doing.
- Storytelling and empathy: By weaving stories into these games, we can help children understand the impact of their actions on the environment. In the online games we shared above, children are helping cartoon characters clean up their river. This means that the fish have a better environment to live in. Through this narrative, kids can develop empathy for our planet, and animals in it, alongside that sense of responsibility towards its care.
We really hope that you like this game. To download it, just click on the button or the image below.
If you like this activity, why not check out some of the other articles on the site about being green:
Other articles relevant to being green on KiddyCharts
Here are more ideas from KiddyCharts that focus on being green, and the environment.
5 ways to be a sustainable parent for your kids future
If you are looking at lifestyle changes as a parent - here are some more ideas that might help you.
Animal habitats sorting game for kids: Free printable
This is a great way to educate kids on the importance of our animal habitats. Such a lovely game, and one of our most popular activities.
Mountain ecology for kids printables with Myra Makes
A focus on ecology in this particular activity from Myra Makes. This will engage your kids and help them understand the delicate balance in ecology.
Here are others offsite too:
Sustainability and climate change articles off KiddyCharts
Here are some more ideas for you to use to help kids to understand and learn about sustainability and the environment.
The Greenhouse Effect Experiment
What better way to teach kids about climate change than an experiment that helps illustrate it. Check this out now.
Earth Day Resources that make Sustainability Simple for Kids -
Resources for Earth Day to help our kids learn and understand all about sustainability.
Teaching Children Sustainability Through DIY Projects
Sometimes getting hands on - helps kids to learn - so DIY for understanding sustainability works well!
Teaching Children Why Sustainability Is Important
Finally, how do we teach the importance of sustainability - this article explains why it is so important to do so.
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Thanks so much for coming.
Helen
Helen
Helen is a mum to two, social media consultant, and website editor; and this site is (we think) the only Social Enterprise parenting magazine!Since giving up being a business analyst when juggling travel, work and kids proved too complicated, she founded KiddyCharts so she could be with her kids, and use those grey cells at the same time.KiddyCharts has reach of over 1.1million across social and the site. The blog works with big family brands (including travel) to help promote their services, as well as offering free resources to parents of kids under 10.It gives 51%+ profits to Reverence for Life, who fund a number of important initiatives in Africa, including bringing running water and basic equipment to a school in Tanzania.Helen has worked as a digital marketing consultant (IDM qualified) with various organisations, including Channel Mum, Truprint, Talk to Mums, and Micro Scooters. She loves to be creative in the brand campaigns she works on.Get in touch TODAY!