Earth Day is coming up this year on April 22. This is a good time to talk to children about recycling, and how we can reuse things that we might otherwise throw away. There are some fun and creative uses for various recycled items. In this article, I will share some activities that can be done with preschoolers using recycled plastic bottles.
1) Make a musical instrument - Try celebrating music in your home or classroom by making a quiet musical rattle out of a plastic water bottle. Children can decorate the outside of the bottle with stickers, and make a handle with pipe cleaners or yarn. Then, the children can fill their bottle with something that will make noise, but still be very quiet, (such as Q-tips, salt, tiny pasta, cotton puffs or confetti).
2) Make compost in a bottle - This idea helps to teach young children about reducing and reusing food waste, and how food scraps can be turned into something useful for the environment. Start by cutting an empty plastic soda bottle in half (or using a plastic bottle that has a wide opening). Have children help you tear strips of newspaper, and layer those in the bottle with soil, fertilizer and food scraps.
3) Plastic bottle stamping - Here you can use recycled plastic bottles to make Earth Day art! Collect a variety of empty water bottles, and look for the ones that have indentations on the bottom of them. If you are able, collect a variety of bottles in a few sizes. Then, have children paint the bottom of their plastic bottles and then press them onto a piece of paper to make designs or prints.
4) Rainbow discovery bottles - To make these; simply peel the labels off of cleaned, clear water bottles. Fill the bottles almost all the way with water. Then add a few drops of food coloring into each bottle so that you have 1 bottle for each color of the rainbow.
5) More discovery bottles - Discovery bottles can be filled with almost anything! Try collecting an assortment of different types of seeds (i.e. pumpkin, squash, apple seeds in the Fall / flower, watermelon, vegetable seeds in the Spring). Put some seeds in empty water bottles and seal them shut tightly with a glue gun.
Enjoy these activities on Earth Day ... or any day!
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