Recycle Day ideas for OSHC
60 DIY activities for a recycle day at before and after school care or vacation care, usually run around 22 April or Father's Day (first Sunday in September). Pick and mix, or build a balanced day in one click.
Balloon Bongo Drums
Children turn recycled tins into drums by stretching balloon skins over the top, then play rhythms together.
Father's Day · Mother's Day · Recycle Day +1Bottle Cap Keyrings
Children decorate metal bottle caps with pictures or paint and attach them to keyrings as gifts for special people.
Taco Fiesta Day · Music and Dance Day · Music Festival Day +2Bottle Maraca Making
Children fill small bottles with rice or beans, decorate them and use them to shake along to music.
Recycle Day · Sustainable Superstars · Earth Day +3Bottle Top Mosaic
Children sort collected bottle tops by colour and glue them onto a board to make bright mosaic pictures, turning plastic waste into art.
Block World Day · Gaming Day · Cardboard Box Day +1Cardboard Block Tools
Children make pickaxes, shovels and swords from cardboard and paint them in chunky pixel patterns for block-world pretend play.
Cardboard Box Day · Robot Day · Recycle Day +3Cardboard Box Robots
Children build their own robots from small boxes and decorate them with bottle caps, fabric scraps and other recycled bits.
Medieval Times · Knights and Fairies · Cardboard Box Day +2Cardboard Castle Building
Children build castles with turrets, walls and working drawbridges from boxes, tubes and string.
Long Projects Day · Cardboard Box Day · At the Building Site +2Cardboard City
Children build an entire city from boxes, adding buildings, roads and parks over the day.
Superhero Day · Cardboard Box Day · Recycle Day +1Cardboard Hero Hammer
Children build a mighty hero hammer from a tissue box and cardboard tube, wrapping it in foil and tape for a shiny finish.
Space Explorers · Science and Space · Rocket and Plane Day +2Cardboard Rocket Ships
Children build rockets from tubes, boxes and foil, designing fins, windows and a launch pad.
Puzzle Day · Recycle Day · Craft Day +1Cereal Box Jigsaws
Children cut old cereal boxes into jigsaw puzzles and swap them with friends. Recycling meets puzzling.
Gardening Day · Sustainable Superstars · Recycle Day +3Compost Bin Start-Up
Children sort food scraps into compost and non-compost piles, then start a compost bin and learn what breaks down and why.
Crazy Hat Day · Mad Hatter's Tea Party · Recycle Day +1Crazy Hat Decorating
Children turn paper plates and recycled items into wacky hats to wear for the day.
Halloween · Bug Day · Craft Day +1Creepy Egg Carton Crafts
Children turn egg cartons and paper into bats, spiders and other creepy critters.
Sustainable Superstars · Recycle Day · Clean Up Australia Day +2Daily Waste Audit
Older children weigh and sort the day's rubbish to see what the service throws away and plan ways to reduce it.
Op Shop Day · Kindness Day · Sustainable Superstars +2Donation Sorting Drive
Children help sort, fold and pack donated items for a local charity or op shop. A meaningful way to give back to the community.
Knights and Fairies · Mythical Creatures · Medieval Times +3Egg Carton Dragons
Children paint egg carton strips and add wings and tails to make friendly dragons.
Environmental Day · Clean Up Australia Day · Earth Day +2Environmental Action Day
Children take part in a litter clean-up, sort waste into the right bins and share a waste-free afternoon tea.
Superhero Day · Dramatic Play Day · Op Shop Day +1Fabric Superhero Capes
Children cut capes from old pillowcases or felt and add their own emblem with fabric paint.
Art Through the Ages · Recycle Day · Loose Parts Day +3Found Object Collage
Children collect and arrange found and recycled items into collages, exploring texture, colour and composition.
Cardboard Box Day · Cubby Day · Maker Day +3Giant Box Creations
Children turn large appliance boxes into cubbies, cars or castles with paint, tape and old sheets.
Glow Party · Neon Day · Bonza Bottler Day +3Glow Bowling
Children bowl at bottle pins lit up with glow sticks in a darkened room.
Bug Day · World Bee Day · Sustainable Superstars +3Homemade Beeswax Wraps
Older children help make reusable food wraps by melting beeswax into cotton squares, learning about reducing plastic waste and the role of bees.
Music and Dance Day · Rock Band Day · Recycle Day +3Homemade Instrument Band
Children make box guitars, shakers and drums from recycled materials, then play them together as a band.
Polar Day · Winter Wonderland · Recycle Day +1Igloo Building
Children build igloos from milk bottles or marshmallows and talk about how shape keeps them strong. Building with a twist.
Inventors Day · Maker Day · Recycle Day +3Junk Invention Lab
Children turn recyclables into new gadgets and inventions, testing and improving their designs.
Recycle Day · Cardboard Box Day · Maker Day +3Junk Sculpture Challenge
Children use clean recycled boxes, bottles and tubes to design and build robots or sculptures, solving building problems as they go.
K-Pop Dance Party · Glow Party · Music Festival Day +2Lightstick Craft
Children make concert-style light sticks from tubes and cellophane to wave at a dance party.
Clean Up Australia Day · Recycle Day · Environmental Day +2Litter Sorting Graph
Children sort clean collected rubbish into types and create a graph to show what they found.
Milk Day · Bird Watching Day · Recycle Day +3Milk Carton Bird Feeder
Children turn empty milk cartons into bird feeders, then hang them outdoors and watch for visitors.
Sustainable Superstars · Bird Watching Day · Recycle Day +3Milk Carton Bird Feeders
Children turn clean milk cartons into bird feeders, fill them with seed and hang them outdoors to watch for visitors.
Fashion Design Day · Recycle Day · Paper Crafts Day +1Newspaper Fashion Design
Children design and make wearable outfits from newspaper and tape, then model their creations.
Pirate Day · Paper Crafts Day · Crazy Hat Day +1Newspaper Pirate Hats
Children fold broadsheet newspaper into tricorn hats and decorate them. A quick dress-up craft for pirate day.
Book Week · Silly Stories Day · Rhyme Time Day +2Newspaper Word Collage
Older children cut words from newspapers and magazines to build silly sentences and poems, playing with language.
Mismatch Day · Puppet Day · Crazy Sock Day +2Odd Sock Puppets
Children turn odd or lost socks into puppets with buttons, wool and felt, then put on a puppet show.
Recycle Day · Fashion Design Day · Fashion Day +3Paper Bag Fashion
Children cut and decorate paper shopping bags into capes, vests and costumes, then show off their designs in a fashion parade.
Recycle Day · Art Attack Day · Budding Artists +2Paper Bag Painting
Children paint big, bold artworks on opened-out paper shopping bags, which make sturdy, free paper for large-scale painting.
Winter Wonderland · Recycle Day · Wet Weather Day +2Paper Snowball Fight
Children scrunch scrap paper into snowballs and throw them across a divided room, trying to clear their side before time's up.
Craft Day · Long Projects Day · Recycle Day +2Papier-Mâché Bowls and Masks
Children layer newspaper and glue over balloons to make bowls or masks, then paint them once dry over the following day.
World Oceans Day · Clean Up Australia Day · Recycle Day +3Plastic in the Ocean Demo
Children add plastic items to a tub of water with toy sea creatures, see how plastic tangles and floats, and test ways to clean it up.
Rainforest Day · Music and Dance Day · Weather Watchers +2Rain Stick Making
Children fill cardboard tubes with rice and a coil of foil to make rain sticks that sound like falling rain. A musical craft.
Robot Day · Recycle Day · Cardboard Box Day +2Recycled Box Robots
Children build their own robots from boxes, foil and bottle tops, then give them names and special jobs.
Bird Watching Day · Recycle Day · Gardening Day +3Recycled Carton Bird Feeders
Children turn milk cartons into bird feeders, fill them with seed and hang them outside to attract local birds.
Recycle Day · Sustainable Superstars · Science Week +3Recycled Paper Making
Older children turn scrap paper into pulp and press it into new sheets of handmade paper, seeing the recycling process up close.
Space Explorers · Robot Day · Recycle Day +1Recycled Space Robots
Children build friendly space helper robots from recyclables, inventing what job each one does on a spaceship.
Santa's Workshop · Christmas · Recycle Day +3Recycled Toy Workshop
Children become toy makers, building cars, puppets and games from recycled materials in a busy festive workshop.
Recycle Day · Clean Up Australia Day · Sustainable Superstars +3Recycling Sort Relay
Teams race to sort clean rubbish into the right bins, learning which items belong in recycling, compost or landfill.
Loose Parts Day · Maker Day · Recycle Day +3Reverse Garbage Maker Day
Children design anything they like from tables of clean recyclables, tape and tools, turning waste into creations.
Clean Up Australia Day · Recycle Day · Sustainable Superstars +3Rubbish Art Sculpture
Children turn clean collected rubbish into a creative sculpture to display.
Clean Up Australia Day · Environmental Day · Earth Day +3Schoolyard Litter Clean-Up
Teams with gloves and tongs collect and tally rubbish around the grounds, caring for their space.
Sustainable Superstars · Gardening Day · Recycle Day +2Self-Watering Bottle Planters
Children turn plastic bottles into self-watering planters, sow seeds and watch them grow over the following weeks.
Pet Day · Puppet Day · Craft Day +1Sock Puppet Pets
Children turn odd socks into pet puppets, then put on a pet show. A creative mix of craft and performance.
Puppet Day · Craft Day · Recycle Day +1Sock Puppets
Children turn socks into puppet characters with buttons and felt. A quick, recycled craft.
Science and Space · Robot Day · Space Explorers +2Space Robot Crafts
Children build space robots and rovers from boxes and foil, imagining what jobs they would do on other planets.
Recycle Day · Sustainable Superstars · Music and Dance Day +1Tin Can Wind Chimes
Older children paint clean tin cans and thread them with beads to make wind chimes that jingle in the breeze.
Around the World Day · New Year's Party · Diwali +2Toilet Roll Firework Prints
Children cut the ends of toilet rolls into fringes and stamp them in paint to make bursting firework pictures.
Inventors Day · Maker Day · Science Day +3Tube Marble Run
Children connect cardboard tubes on a wall or board to build a marble run, testing and adjusting until the marble makes it through.
Gardening Day · Sustainable Superstars · Recycle Day +3Worm Farm and Compost
Children set up a worm farm and compost bin and feed them afternoon tea scraps, learning how waste becomes soil.
Bug Day · Gardening Day · Sustainable Superstars +3Worm Farm Study
Children observe worms in a worm farm with magnifiers, learning how worms turn food scraps into rich soil.
Earth Day · Recycle Day · Clean Up Australia Day +2Woven Recycled Place Mats
Children weave strips of junk mail and cereal boxes into sturdy, colourful place mats.