What if an empty milk bottle stopped looking like rubbish — and started looking like possibility?
Across six connected missions, children explore everyday materials, sort and compare them, reuse them, create something useful and celebrate what they achieved together.
The goal isn't simply to memorise recycling rules.
It's to create opportunities for children to ask:
“What could this become?”
That question can encourage resourcefulness, curiosity, responsibility, cooperation and pride in what they can create.
A recycling project without building everything from scratch
No more collecting unrelated worksheets, searching for another activity for next week or trying to work out how six different resources are supposed to connect.
DentBloom gives you one structured journey with a clear beginning, progression and finish.
Children don't just complete an activity and move on.
- They find materials.
- They sort them.
- They investigate them.
- They transform them.
- They use what they create.
- And they share the story of what they did.
Less disconnected planning. More purpose behind what happens in the room.
What children have opportunities to practise
- Resourcefulness — seeing possibility in things that might otherwise be thrown away.
- Responsibility — choosing, sorting, decorating, using and caring for what they create.
- Curiosity and language — exploring real materials through words such as smooth, rough, shiny and bumpy.
- Cooperation — taking on meaningful team roles, contributing and working together.
- Confidence and pride — being able to say:
- “I made that.”
- “We used this again.”
- “This is our watering can.”
Six connected missions
- 1. Material Hunter — notice and discover different materials.
- 2. Sorting Challenge — sort real objects by material.
- 3. Recycling Detective — investigate smooth, rough, shiny and bumpy materials.
- 4. My Plant Pot — give a recycled milk bottle a new purpose.
- 5. Watering Can Maker — transform another bottle into something children can actually use.
- 6. Our Recycling Gallery — reflect, share and celebrate what the group created.
The project teaches sorting by Paper & Cardboard, Plastic and Metal, rather than assuming one universal bin-colour system. Included resources allow educators to adapt the experience to the recycling system children see in their own community.
Adult-only cutting, hole-making, sealing and sharp-edge checks are clearly identified throughout.
One project ends. The learning doesn't.
DentBloom projects are designed to connect.
The plant pot and watering can children create here can continue into Gardening.
What children grow can later connect with Cooking.
Food scraps can open the door to Composting and growing again.
Recycling → Gardening → Cooking → Composting → Growing again
Objects can return. Ideas can return. Familiar characters can return.
The Recycling Educator Guide also includes short puppet starters for all six missions, helping Cathy Carrot and other familiar DentBloom characters introduce problems, encourage conversation and connect one experience to the next.
Children don't have to start from zero every time a new topic begins — and neither do educators.
Everything is organised for you
The Recycling Project includes the complete nine-page child journal and six missions, Educator Guide, Quick Start, planning and observation resources, family pages, A4/A3 classroom posters, sorting and local-bin resources, plant-pot and watering-can activities, music and movement resources, recycled-instrument activities, team resources, certificates, original audio and video.
Key classroom visuals are supplied in print-ready formats.
The files aren't the real product. The experience they help you create is.
Included in your DentBloom licence
You're not purchasing Recycling alone.
Your 12-month DentBloom licence gives one childcare centre access to the DentBloom project collection included in the licence — plus new projects, resources, updates and additions released during your active licence year at no additional cost.
Anything new will appear in the Payhip account used for your purchase, so check your account from time to time to see what's been added.
Everything you download stays with your centre
Resources downloaded during your active licence can continue to be used by that licensed centre after the 12 months end.
Print them as many times as needed for educators, children and future groups at that same centre.
Resources may not be resold, redistributed, shared with another centre or reproduced for another location.
Multi-site licensing is available.
When your 12 months end, renew to continue accessing new DentBloom projects, updates and future additions.
One licence. One centre. A whole year of DentBloom — including everything we add along the way.
Created by DentBloom
Created by Dr Florencia Echenique, Australian registered dentist, for early childhood settings.
Suitable for approximately ages 2–6, with six flexible sessions of around 20–40 minutes.
Mapped to the Early Years Learning Framework (EYLF) to support purposeful planning, observation and documentation.
Less searching. Less disconnected planning. More purpose.
Give children the chance to discover that something doesn't have to be new to be valuable — and give educators a complete experience without having to build it from the beginning.
Strong roots today, healthy habits tomorrow.