How To Teach Recycling To Little Kids

How to teach Recycling to your children for the first time? Here's what my experience was like!

How to teach Recycling to your children for the first time? Here’s what my experience was like!

I love to teach my son critical aspects of life in a simple way. For the Indian Independence Day program, the kids in my building were asked to make posters on Go Green or Recycling. I was teaching my six year old son the concept of recycling. Instead of stating the scientific facts of recycling, I decided to break up the concept and use cartoonish drawings to show how our Earth was being affected by people not recycling. My focus was on making the project creative and engaging and most importantly, fun for my son.

I brought out the emotional element of recycling by starting with my son drawing a picture of our Earth and it is on fire and it is crying profusely. My son was upset and asked me why our Earth is crying. Then I told him how we are using up Earth’s daily resources like minerals and water and depleting the Earth. I explained how the oceans were being made dirty by us throwing plastic into it; which in turn also kills the sea animals.

Next we talked about how we can save our Earth. We did a drawing where we drew ways in which we can save water by not keeping the tap open when we brush our teeth, or planting more trees to make up for the trees we cut, or cleaning up our environment, or cycling to work instead of finishing off the fuels. We used simple daily tasks to show how we are saving our Earth bit by bit. We then proceeded to drawing pictures of how we can reuse daily products to save the precious resources from being used up. My son was fascinated by how everyday products are recycled and turned into brand new products. For example, notebook papers are turned into paper towels; glass bottles are reused as light bulbs; and metal cans are converted into car parts. I saw my son now looking around and realising that he has a lot of products in his house that can be recycled. He looked into the white recycling bag and promised me that he would recycle from now on.

Lastly we drew pictures of children playing and recycling. We drew a happy Earth with a wide smile and children holding hands around the Earth. I taught a simple yet important concept in a story like way to my son. Not only did he grasp the importance of recycling but it was a fun activity for him. He won the third prize for his chart and his ability to beautifully explain what is recycling and why we need to do it. Learning should be visual and exciting.       

 

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About the Author

Anindita Nag

I love to write on women's issues. I strongly believe that every woman is capable of being more than just a homemaker. They are the leaders of our world. They can multi-task more read more...

50 Posts | 124,793 Views

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