Looking for educational indoor play ideas for the school holidays? Check out these easy and environmentally friendly activities to carry out with your children!
1. Build your own robot
Set up an eco-friendly art activity for your child by constructing an amazing robot out of recyclable materials!
Collect boxes, cups and tissue rolls together with your child to start engineering your very own robot friend! With some glue, cellophane tape and ingenuity, you can make a tall robot, a short robot, a flying robot… the list is endless!
To encourage imaginative play, get your children to tell you a story about their robots. What special abilities do they have? What sounds do they make? What adventures are they having together?
This is a great way to make use of household materials and to help your child to understand the concept of recycling – converting used materials into a new product!
2. Make DIY recycling bins
To teach your kids about different types of recyclable materials, get your children involved in making and decorating their own DIY bins!
Grab 3 empty boxes and wrap them in orange, brown and blue paper. Let your kids personalize them with stickers, paints, markers, glitter or anything they like!
Explain how recyclables are sorted by colour:
Orange = Plastic & aluminium
Brown = Glass
Blue = Paper
When you use plastic, tin, glass or paper items in your household, ask your child where it should go. Then you can rinse it out or fold it up together and place it in the DIY bins!
Learning to identify items and participate in recycling gives your child a sense of responsibility of their role in reducing waste and saving resources for the environment. It’s also a great start for a sustainable lifestyle within your family.
3. Craft a recyclable costume
If your child likes dressing up and playing costumed heroes, this is the game for them – it’s an unconventional materials outfit challenge!
Design a creative costume with your child made entirely out of recycled materials, such as boxes, paper, cloth or plastic. Help your child to cut, paste, glue and come up with a fun outfit together!
Pick out the clothes at the back of your cupboard that you no longer wear and let your child decorate them with fabric markers. You can also create accessories, such as a wand, sword or crown to bring your costume to life!
If you’re accomplished at tailoring and sewing, you can even show your child how to turn a pair of jeans into shorts, or a skirt into a wizard’s cloak.
This activity teaches your child the concept of upcycling and repurposing materials instead of purchasing more items.
4. Design a poster collage
To learn about our impact on the environment, you can create posters with your child on what makes our Earth ‘happy’ and ‘sad’.
Draw a smiling Earth at the centre of your first poster, and draw or stick on items that make the Earth happy! This can include trees, flowers, land and underwater animals and insects.
Next, draw a crying Earth on your second poster. Discuss what might make the Earth sad, and let your child stick on items such as plastic wrappers, straws, and draw pollutants such as vehicles and factories.
You can cut out pictures from magazines and ask your child to sort them into the ‘happy’ or ‘sad’ posters too.
This activity helps your child visualize how our actions contribute towards the state of the environment, and is a good conversation starter on what we can do to care for the Earth.
5. Grow your own plants
Get in touch with nature and encourage your child’s green thumb by caring for a plant!
You may want to start small with an indoor potted plant – whether they are bean sprouts, groundnuts, garlic bulbs or wheatgrass, your child will be fascinated with a growing plant. Explain how to care for a seedling by watering it, placing it by the sun and watching for new shoots.
You can also let your child decorate their potted plant with their own cards or popsicle stick markers to personalise their plant!
If you have a spot in your garden, you may like to plant some vegetables with your child! Your child will learn about how the soil, fertiliser and earthworms help a plant grow. They will enjoy harvesting the fruit of their labour and eating something they have planted themselves.
This activity is an excellent learning point about how plants provide us with oxygen and clean air, and to discuss the importance of our trees and forests.
6. BONUS: Have fun with paper crafts
Need video tutorials? Here are extra crafty activities you can do with simple home materials!
1. Cute DIY Paper Bookmarks
2. Beautiful Paper Flower Bouquet
Happy holidays! We hope you enjoy these educational and eco-friendly activities with your child! #GoGreenQdees
For more information about Q-dees’ award-winning programmes, call 1700-81-5077 or visit https://www.www.q-dees.com/starters/find-a-centre/ to find a Q-dees centre near you today!