20 Repurposed Reused and Recycled Activities
Create & Recreate Play
Welcome to Part 2 of 10 Ways We Reuse, Repurpose and Recycle Activities.
Did you miss Part I about 10 Ways We Create and Recreate Play Activities?
Make Earth Day Every Day. Be Mindful.
Make sure to read through it to see how easily we repurpose, reuse and recycle old activities into new activities to reduce waste, cost and our footprint on the environment! Please note that these activities are not solely recycled activities made from our recycling bin. That is not the purpose of this at all. Rather it is to show you how we take a few things, saved from year to year and activity to activity and make them new again! I have made 10+ fun bins out of a bag of rice. I add grated cheese canisters to colored sand and I bring sticks inside! We make games from detergent bottles, pieces of woods, and paper. We try out science experiments and make our own play dough that lasts all year! These are just some of the highlights below!
Sensory Bins and Sensory Play
I save all of our fillers and goodies in gallon zip lock bags so they stay fresh and clean. I love to reuse containers from the kitchen for playing in sensory bins. Here are a few samples but all our sensory bins use and reuse what we already have in the house! Less is more!
1. Rice Sensory Bins
2. Craft Sand Sensory Bin
3. Natural Material Sensory Bin
Sensory Bins Resource Page
Recycled Materials
Sure you can also look in the recycling bin, grab boxes from your warehouse store and use styrofoam before it goes in the trash bin. Science, math, sensory play, gross motor pretend play and more!
4. Cardboard Tube Sensory & Ball Run Making
5. Cardboard Box Play
6. Styrofoam Experimenting Play
Games and Puzzles
So many ways to make simple early learning games right around the house! We love plastic Easter eggs for games, old containers and more. We cut puzzles from postcards and old greeting cards!
7. DIY Fishing Alphabet & Number Game
8. Homemade Geo Board
9. Easter Egg Games
10. Gross Motor Ball Toss Game
11. Greeting Card Puzzles
12. Post Card Puzzles
Fun Hands On Activities
Make music, play with marbles, use kitchen utensils to paint, squeeze sponges or crack nuts! Just look around!
13. Marble Fine Motor Play & Painting
14. Kitchen Utensil Painting
15. Simple Musical Instruments
16. Make A Rain Stick
Play Dough Play
A single batch of homemade play dough has lasted us many seasons already. We made Halloween monsters, Christmas cookie cutter play, zoo search and find, St Patricks day clovers, carrot planting and just everyday play with our awesome green play dough. Soft, natural, fresh and made together!
17. 15 Simple Play Dough Activities
Science Activities
One of our passions here is Science experiments and activities! I love simple science and Liam really enjoys learning about it. I really do keep it simple and fun and there are many ways to do this around the house. No materials required!
18. Solids, Liquids and Gasses
19. Junk Drawer Ice Melt
20. Keep Our Ocean Clean & Recycling Activity
21. Bonus! Gravity Simplified
22. Salt Water Sink or Float
Science Activities Resource Page
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Thank you for all these great ideas! I’m scheduled to teach my son’s preschool co-op in a couple of weeks, and the theme is RECYCLING! I was hoping I could find some fun crafts that would reuse materials. These are perfect!
OMG! What a plethora of ideas for engaging crafts and using recyclable materials as well. I don’t know where to start but you have given me a ton of great ideas. Thanks so much!