You asked for it! Green activities.

A request from my Inbox:

Please, could you kindly tell me if you know of activities that can be done with children and their parents to introduce, remind or develop and awareness and more importantly adapt buying and disposal habits with respect to recyclable materials.

Games, toy making, craft type activities would be ideal. I hope to use these at outdoor events I organise for families.

============================================================================
Here are my suggestions with links to articles I have written earlier that will be useful for your project:

1) Take the families out for walks at public gardens or National Parks. Then provoke their senses by showing them pictures of what these places will look like if they do not take care of the environment.

2) You can use your fingers to tell them why they should be mindful of the environment.

3) Get the children appreciating green places by getting them to cut out pictures of parks or forest reserves they can go with their parents. They can paste the pictures and note their locations in old calendars.

4) In my country, I am allowed to pick seeds off parks in our housing estates. If it is allowed in UK, get the children to collect seeds from parks in their neighbourhood and bring them home to grow or give away. Take pictures of the trees or plants near where the seeds dropped off from so that they will have a record of the greens they have planted.

5) I have posted a few videos to remind or create an awareness of how our shopping habits can affect the environment. A very good example of one is the following:

Shopping? Buying product or packaging?

Through my experience, the children will appreciate the following videos:

Teaching children? You need superheroes.

"If I am your friend..." is a poem I wrote for the children to go with this video I showed them.

The children love this video best:
Underwears? Yes, can be recycled.

There are a few videos from "The Most Terrifying Video You'll Ever See" which was created by a Physics school teacher in US.

6) If you do a search for packaging on my blog, you will find that I have posted many ideas on how to make use of them. I have also posted many free tutorials using scrap materials on this blog and on Creative Recyclers.

7) A drum circle is something that they can play outdoor. The children can create their own Recycled Musical Ware. They can also create decorations for their musical wares.

8) Don't miss out the children who do not enjoy and will not join your outdoor activities. Let them learn about going green playing games. It will also be a fun way to introduce children to the world of recycling.

This is it for the moment till I find more activities to add to this.