This document provides a variety of fun and creative activities to teach children about environmental sustainability and recycling in an engaging way. It suggests games, arts and crafts, drama, and peer-to-peer teaching using recycled materials that make the lessons memorable while promoting conservation values through competition, creativity, observation and active learning. The goal is to impart this knowledge intuitively rather than through blame, and give children leadership roles in sharing what they've learned with others.

1. MAKING ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION
FUN, CREATIVE AND MEMORABLE
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2. ENVIRONMENTAL
EDUCATIONAL GAMES, and
ACTIVITIES for School and
Holiday/Camp Programmes, and
parents in the education for
sustainability (EfS) process.
PPT 1.
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3. ECOLOGICALLY INSPIRED GAMES AND ACTIVITIES
FOR 4 TO 8 YEAR OLDS:
Inspiring change through COMPETITION, CREATIVITY and FUN.
Through the use of -
(a) Creativity (b) Observation (c) Active Engagement
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4. Play Therapy for the Land
and Trees
All Creatures Underfoot
and in the Seas
And so saeth all the environmental play advocates.
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5. OUTLETS FOR EDUCATIONAL ACTIVITIES FOR CHILDREN
Eco-Calendars Quizzes
Mazes Mock Interviews
Sand play Kids Being Teacher
Posters and Infographics Treasure hunts
Quirky Research Projects
Sculpture/Art
Puzzles/Word Games Eco-debating
Green Drama Show and Tell Games in Nature

6. Throughout the education process
Aim to keep learning on an intuitive/heartfelt level
LESS concerned with attributing blame –
You should do X because ….
• By engaging in a creative activity, children have the environmental
activity and content imprinted in their sub-conscious minds.
Green Spin (Or) Promoting the Green Message (2013) – Nicolle Kuna

7. PEER EDUCATION = KIDS BEING TEACHER
Benefits of Peer Education –
Older children can help younger children with their Projects and
Research (instilling peer-learned responsibility)
Pupils are navigating their own futures …
Keeps the learning on a more playful, intuitive and engaging level
Humour and fun makes learning more memorable

8. In this presentation we will focus on Waste & Recycling

9. KIDS BEING TEACHER
This takes the form of pupils –
(1) Interviewing the class - eg how to reduce waste at beach or at the park
(or dress-ups - Mermaids running Workshops on location.)
(2) Conducting “TV/radio broadcasts” on direct action
Breaking News – Joey is on Litter Duty at the boathouse placing Smiley
Face Stickers on all the rubbish bins …
(3) Dramas/plays written by and performed by students

10. ‘Mermaids’ run Workshops about ways we can keep plastic waste out of the ocean.
Students hold Recycled Fashion Parade using items from Op Shops (AKA Bargain
or Thrift Shops)

11. KIDS BEING TEACHER
(4) Show and Tell time – children share items found in nature and what inspires
them (Alternately, they bring in toys and speak about them in relation to their
environment).
(5) Infographics and Posters creatively demonstrating what happens to Recycled
Objects, when recycled or upcycled.
(6) Word games, quizzes, cross word or jigsaw puzzles building in recycling or
habitat info. and other conservation topics.
(7) Games out in school ground or in nature with eco themes.

12. Eco Jigsaw Puzzle containing recycled materials

13. Be A- Mazed
Create An Eco Maze – Draw in the items
to be recycled (or cut & paste pics from
magazines) at top of maze –
• At bottom, add in the Recycling bins
• Aim – to get aluminium cans etc thru
maze to Recycling bin.
• Alternately use PET bottles and
refillable steel bottle and draw in water
fountain as desired destination.

14. Another A-maze-ing idea
• Help the Worm find its way through the MAZE, &
unearth the buried glass bottles or plastic bottles.
• Then help the worm navigate its way to the Vegie
Garden. Add in a Recycling bin for the worm to leave
the bottles in.
• After you’ve completed this task, research the value
worms have in the garden, and how gardens benefit
our world, as a whole (oxygen, shade, biodiversity,
co2 sink).

16. Let’s Get Recycled
• Projects specialising in REUSE of fabrics, packaging and other
household materials destined for the bin
• Reusing of cardboard/paper to MAKE Greeting Cards, Eco
Calendars, reuseable Shopping Bags, Bookmarks, Kites or Signs
with eco slogans or environmental themes.
• REPURPOSING household items to make fun sculptures or useful
items such as clear PET bottles cut out and used as planters and
strung up as ‘mobiles’ outside.

17. School project (Mermaid
from waste which washed up
on the shore - Diog, Wales) –
Source, Wikimedia Commons

18. Rubbish Tiggy
• Game with similar principle as “Tiggy” ….
• Person is nominated ‘IT’ and the 10-15 runners are given an area
to avoid being tagged. Game needs to be played near a notional
‘Bin’ though not one that can be tripped over or banged in to.
• Scatter rubbish around. Aim of the game is to pick up rubbish
without being tagged by ‘IT’ and extra points scored for getting
litter in ‘Bin’.

19. Blindfold recycling game
• Kids love anything done ‘in the dark’.
• Large sheet of cardboard is used and hoisted up on. Cut out holes
in the cardboard in the shape of commonly recycled materials.
• The object of the game is to pick up items of recyclable rubbish -
PET bottles, milk cartons, tin cans and whilst wearing a blind-fold fit
the items through the appropriate holes in the board.
• Follows same principle as Pin the Tail on the Donkey, without pins.

20. Other Recycling themed
activities
• Dramatise the idea of recycling & incorporate in to a class play (Green
Drama)
• Research throughout history how packaging and recycling has changed
• (Do teachers recall refillable milk bottles and going for rides on the milk
truck?)
• Research: Geographic differences in how waste and recycling is
handled.

21. For more environmental education inspiration, go to our Educators
page -
http://www.converseconserve.com
• Recycled materials were used
in the making of this
presentation and all printing
was done on paper made from
industrial waste.
Andrew Ioannidis – Bug painting

22. Acknowledgements :
• Baz Catlin for his Pencil Drawing on cover
• Wikimedia Commons and its artists – for sharing their
wonderful images – including the Mermaid painting by Georg
Shobel, and Recycled Mermaid – Diog, Wales
• Andrew Ioannidis – Bug Painting
• Nicolle Kuna – Content - Creator of
www.converseconserve.com

23. Park Play House made from reclaimed
chimney and timber materials –
Castlemaine Botanic Gardens.