From the 13th to the 19th of November this year, National Recycling Week took centre stage at our Grow Early Education centres.

As is customary every year, our long day care centres actively participated in this event and utilised it as an important tool for educating the children in our care about reducing waste.

Initiated by Planet Ark in 1996, National Recycling Week stands as one of Planet Ark's flagship campaigns. Its annual mission is to educate and empower individuals to make environmentally responsible choices, especially when faced with the decision of what goes into the bin.

National Recycling Week strives to encourage Australians to contribute to making our country a greener and more sustainable one. Each year, this week serves as a reminder to all Australians that "waste isn't waste until it's wasted."

Our Educators at Grow Early Education focus on helping children develop genuine connections and contributions to caring for our natural world, through their Sustainability Programs. The recycling stations, worm farms and composting bins at our Grow Early Education Centres, also assist children to learn through practical application.

By educating children in our care about recycling, up cycling, use of sustainable materials, and water and energy conservation, this all assists with developing a deep appreciation for our natural world.

“Sustainability empowers children to construct knowledge, explore values and develop an appreciation of the environment and its relationship to their worlds.”

In this blog post, we are thrilled to share some of the fun educational activities our centres engaged in during National Recycling Week 2023!

Grow Early Education Dalby
In addition to their amazing recycling station set up in the foyer of Grow Early Education Dalby, the children in the Toddlers Classroom used recycled materials to create some amazing artwork!  Combining paint with used boxes, the children used a combination of items as paint brushes to create their group masterpiece… including wooden pegs!

Grow Early Education Hervey Bay
At Grow Early Education Hervey Bay, their Sustainability Station is filled to the brim with recycled and used items donated by families for the children to play and learn with. Egg cartons, glass jars, cardboard boxes, plastic containers and bottle lids in every colour of the rainbow! Grow Early Education Hervey Bay has a strong focus on sustainability in their programming as they support the children to understand the importance of reducing, reusing and recycling.

Grow Early Education Kelso
At Grow Early Education Kelso, the Toddler Classroom expanded on their interest of trains by using train wheels and paint to express themselves creatively.  A plastic tray from their Recycling Station was used to hold the paint they were using, which is a clever way to reduce and reuse.  Grow Early Education Kelso are always looking at ways to be sustainability conscious and share this value with the children in their care… including holding a Weekend Treasure Hunt as part of their Sustainability Program!

The aim of the Weekend Treasure Hunt was to encourage more donations of used and recycled items from their families.  On the Friday, families were asked to take a Woolworths paper bag from the centre home with them and over the weekend, place all the treasure hunt list items in it, before returning it full on the Monday!

Grow Early Education Tarneit
During National Recycling Week, the Kindergarten Classroom at Grow Early Education Tarneit explored recycling through a new learning area set up within their classroom. As a learning extension to this, they took all the collected recycled items with them to the local container deposit station.

Through all these fun and creative activities, the children explored the concept of reduce, reuse, recycle!

Do you have a recycling system in your home? Or perhaps you would like to find out how you could be doing more? For more recycling tips and tricks, visit www.recyclingnearyou.com.au/nationalrecyclingweek/