Trash or Treasure? Recycling Everyday Items for Children’s Play
A young child has a variety of art materials out on a table where they are creating.
by Dr. Emily A Snowden
In our modern era, humans accumulate exponential amounts of waste. In our day-to-day, we have a tendency to use something once and then consider it “done.” This is particularly true if it is in the name of convenience. While this is often one of the many compromises we have to make to keep up with the fast pace of modern life, the items we leave in our wake take many forms.
In our kitchens, we throw out things like coffee pods, paper towels, plastic bags, and takeout containers. In our closets, we toss items like stained clothing, ripped clothing, trendy clothing, Halloween costumes, and a well-documented outfit worn once at a social event. In other corners of the home, we have random things lying around like crumpled gift wrap, plant matter, boxes, bubble wrap, single socks, and markers who lost their lids. These items fill our mailboxes, our grocery carts, our trunks, our homes, our landfills, our oceans, and our Earth.
At the same time, when we look at the care of our youngest humans, we spend quite a bit of money on materials that contribute to this waste production. While we need props, toys, and engaging items that can entertain them, receive them, receive their creativity, and support their learning, keeping these items in stock can become overwhelming, burdensome, and costly to childcare providers and families.
This resource is designed to give you some inspiration for items you may have lying around that could be reused in new ways for play. While some might mirror more realistic use of the items, they don’t have to. These items can be repurposed for dramatic play, object play, art, experimentation, simple deconstruction, and more.
For each category, I provide examples of items along with ideas and “inspiration for play.” However, like all our Connect and Grow in ECE resources, as we reimagine the use of these particular items, the idea is that we get our minds moving in a new direction with new ways of reducing waste and finding materials to repurpose for play.
Disused Tech Tools
Have disused or broken tech equipment? Let your child play with it! Giving children opportunities to explore and handle these items that have become essential parts of our society and work in the “Age of Information” can also help develop their digital literacy skills.
*Pay attention to safety concerns and disconnect any electrical capacity, cords, OR unsafe pieces of the equipment (e.g., batteries) that need to be removed before a child can use the item to play.
Examples: Keyboard, phone, monitor, cordless mouse, typewriter, calculator
Inspiration for Play:
Set up an “office.”
Use the items to construct a “space ship” and go on a journey.
Let the child freely manipulate the item for “object” or “sensory” play (e.g., clicking on a keyboard).
Take broken items apart (for extra fun, use real tools like screwdrivers).
Food Containers and Recyclables
Perhaps an obvious and classic one, recyclable items and containers. As you finish items in safe and reusable containers like cardboard boxes, tupperware, and canisters (we love finding new ways to reuse Cafe Bustelo cans in our house), you can use them as props, storage, or materials for play.
*Again, think safety and pay attention to the items and ensure there is no residual food that could spoil and no sharp edges (e.g., cans).
Examples: Cardboard boxes, egg cartons, plastic cups, oatmeal and coffee canisters, milk jugs, yogurt cups
Inspiration for Play:
Supplement a toy kitchen.
Set up to play “grocery store” or “restaurant” (for extra fun, throw in some of those sample credit cards that show up regularly in most mailboxes).
Combine items to make a musical instrument like a drum set or shaker.
Use egg cartons for an art project like a flower bouquet, animal ears, or treasure chest. Or, simply use them to hold paint and mix the colors.
Use cardboard boxes to make a collage or a mural.
Break down boxes and practice cutting with scissors or tearing with hands.
Pitchers, Cups, and Other Kitchen Items
Take pitchers, cups, and other kitchen items and let the kids use them for play–including adding real water as you’re able (and remember, if they spill, use it as an opportunity to practice cleaning the spill up). Practicing with these items in a low-stakes play setting can also help them develop the skills they need to use them and help with chores like setting the table in real life.
Examples: Pitchers, cups, funnels, ladles, plates, platters
Inspiration for Play:
Have a tea party or “feast” (for extra fun, use jewels, sequins, glitter, and more to decorate a plastic cup and make a special “goblet” or cup that your child can use during the play).
Supplement a toy kitchen.
Let them run a restaurant and attend as a patron.
Use for water transfer play.
Mix “potions.”
Make some lemonade or summer “sun tea” from scratch and have a picnic.
Leaves, Herbs, Flowers, and Kitchen Scraps
Collect some leaves and flowers from your yard (if you can). Even if you don’t have a yard or outdoor space, you can save kitchen scraps to “experiment” with.
Examples: Fresh or dried herbs, expired flower bouquets or spent blooms, pruned plants, carrot or celery tops, pineapple tops, seeds and stone fruit “pits”
Inspiration for Play:
Make “potions.”
Supplement a water table.
Press some flowers and make something like a framed picture or bookmark.
Bundle, hang, and dry herbs.
Propagate a new plant from a kitchen scrap like pineapple, avocado, herbs, or potatoes.
Dry out citrus slices and string to make a suncatcher.
A Note on Encouraging Play
While it can be nice to join in on children’s play and encourage them to align their play with “real” life–like using kitchen items for kitchen play–children do not have to limit their imaginations in this way. Even if the child in your care is attempting to mirror “real life” in their play but getting some details wrong, don’t rush to correct or force the “real world” on their small one while they are sharing it with you.
Instead, try to focus in on the trait, perspective, process, or detail that is commanding their attention. For example, they may play restaurant or store, but not understand all the logistics of a payment exchange. Maybe they give you money when they’re meant to take it, assign incorrect dollar amounts, or forget a payment exchange entirely. Instead of correcting them, just keep going with it and ask them how they expect you to participate in their play (e.g., “That was a great meal–we are all done eating! What should we do next?”). When we are quiet and accepting observers, they can share their understanding of the world around them with us.
Bringing It Together
On top of our modern issues with single-use items, overconsumption, pollution, and waste, young children’s exploratory, destructive, imaginative play, and art can demand many resources and contribute to these issues. While of course sometimes we must “crack a few eggs to make an omelet,” we can also take notice of the many items that may be lying around and repurpose or reimagine their ability to support different kinds of play.
Though this article offers explicit suggestions of items and ideas for play, it is also meant to spark inspiration for how you can think about items that might already be available to you and reuse them to support children in their play, and thus their learning.
“It’s the things we play with and the people who help us play that make a great difference in our lives.”
