I’m thrilled to be teaming up with All Thing Kids this month for our series on using recycled materials for play.  We’re sharing a round-up of our most creative recycled crafts and activities for kids.  For even more fun activities, check out All Things Kids Pinterest Board.

Recycling materials for crafts and activities is a great way to conserve and reuse for play projects.  It was a hard choice, but our #1 go-to recycled material is Baby O’s containers. They’re perfect for caves, tunnels, bridges, slides, ramps, vases, and more. We’ve cut, glued, painted, connected, and even paper mached them for projects.  Toilet paper and egg cartons are strong contenders too.

Toilet Paper Roll Crafts & Activities

Alligator Affirmation Box

Our super cute alligator box uses recycled tissue boxes, egg cartons, take-out box, and toilet paper tubes.

Monster Truck Foil Painting Racetrack

Create a high-octane monster truck racetrack from cardboard, foil, and toilet paper tubes for messy painting fun!

Baby O’s Container Craft & Activities

Paper Mache Cave and Tunnels

Does your little one love dinosaurs and caves? Our kid-made paper mache cave and tunnels uses baby O’s containers, recycled brown packing paper, coffee cans, and jars.

Antarctic Small World with Recycled Mini Slides

This a really inexpensive way to create mini slides and ice circles for sensory and small world play.  With just a few steps and baby O’s containers, you can create reusable mini slides too.

Arctic Small World

Brrr! Create an Arctic small world made entirely from recycled materials including wipes container, baby O’s containers, large juice bottle top and bottom, and caps.

Monster Truck Sensory Bin

Our monster truck sensory bin uses recycled dirt, egg cartons, cardboard ramps, and baby O’s containers.  This easy to set-up sensory bin is great for dirt play and revs-up your child’s imagination on a budget!

Cereal Box & Paper Recycled Craft & Activities

Farm Small World & Recycled Barn Craft

It’s a sunny day on the farm! Our recycled barn craft and small world uses cereal boxes, old popsicle sticks, cardboard, toilet paper tubes, and paper towel tubes.

Snowy Paper Bag Tree Craft

Don’t throw out those used brown lunch bags just yet.  Instead, recycle them into a beautiful brown paper bag tree crafts for kids.

Shredded Paper Sensory Bin

Save your old paper and recycle it into a shredded paper sensory bin.  Playing with paper is a great sensory play experience for kids.  We used baby O’s containers for tunnels too.

Egg Carton Caterpillar

Creating an egg carton caterpillar is an easy and fun recycled craft for kids for story time.

Recycled Nature Crafts & Activities

Mini Stick Teepee & Homemade Drum Craft

DIY teepee uses recycled sticks, fabric, twine, and cardboard.   Nothing beats an easy-to-make homemade drum from recycled coffee cans and twine.

Squirrel Pine Cone Craft

Create a saber-toothed squirrel from recycled pine cones, twig, branches, and pine leaves.  They make great holiday gifts too.

Penguin Pine Cone Craft

Create an adorable royal penguin with recycled pine cones.

Creative Recycled Activities & Art

Carpet Square Painting

Put those old carpet samples to good use—explore process art and create a textured sensory board for play.

DIY Fireman Air Tank

Create your own fireman air tank for dress-up play using recycled plastic bottles, tubing, cardboard, and old bag straps and clips.

Magnetic Attraction Painting (guest post at Blog Me Mom)

Create beautiful recycled metal art using wrenches, nuts, bolts, screws, washers, and old yarn.

Dinosaur Melted Crayon Art

Recycled those old crayon stubs into beautiful dinosaur art.

Playing with recycled materials is a great way to create meaningful play experiences for kids on a budget.

To keep up with all the fun, there’s an All Things Kids series tab at the top of our main blog page with links to all our series activities throughout the year.

Be sure to check out All Things Kids bloggers recycled posts:

10 Ways to Craft & Play Recycled Materials—FSPDT

Recycled Materials Crafts and Activities for Kids—Sugar Aunts

Recycled Crafts & Activities for Kids—Mamas Like Me

Toilet Paper Rolls Easter Eggs Prints—House of Burke

Cardboard Castles—Fun-A-Day

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