Reusing, by itself, is an excellent task for children. It teaches them how to take care of the environment and sort objects into different materials (plastic, metal, paper).
As long as all the products are tidy and without sharp edges, kids ought to be able to make use of any kind of products in the family recycling container.
My daughter uses to search the recycling container looking for anything she can transform to create toys or anything to play with her imagination and creativity.
I'm sure you've experienced the moment when youthful children are much more interested in cardboard boxes than what was available in them. This isn't as real for older children, but they still enjoy having fun with and creating things out of cardboard. From a rocket to a car or a treasure chest, there is no limit if you let them run their imagination and provide them with some craft supplies to achieve what they have in mind.
There are a few other things that kids can reuse that you might not readily connect with recycling:
Birthday or Christmas cards.
Suppose you do not want to keep them, time after time. In that case, children can utilize the pictures glueing into papers or scrapbook or as creatures by glueing a popsicle adhere to the back.
Old newspaper and publications.
The paper can be shredded for paper maché, or youngsters can remove individual letters to create a secret message. The magazines can be used to eliminate letters too or cut out images to make a collection and collage colour shapes, cars, houses, etc.
We enjoy doing faces cutting out eyes, mouths, noses... or sticking different body part to create a new one.
It develops their imagination, and I promise you many laughs!
Old apparel.
Great creativity boosters are orphaned socks or denims that are beyond repair. Make use of the socks to make sock creatures and place them on a puppet show (look at this board to get inspired). You can make use of various other recycled products to embellish the sock creature.
An easy craft made with blue pants is to cut off the back pockets and stitch onto a purse or use both pockets to create a smaller sized handbag:
Old compact discs.
Although many of us keep music libraries in electronic devices, there are always several compact discs at home that do not work anymore.
You can create a Disco Party Ball.
Or they can be decorated as well as reused as coasters.
Kids have terrific creative imaginations. Let them select their own materials from the recycling box at home and also see what they develop. Simply be careful with glass and other items that might hurt younger children.
Let them show you what amazing things they can create. Welcome Creativity out of the box!
Want more ideas? Visit our
Crafts section to find activities that promote recycling.