having fun with a cardboard tube

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What do you get when you combine a sturdy cardboard tube and a roll of funk-a-delic Duck Tape? A Cardboard Drop Zone!

Ok before we get started, I have to say that I am in LOVE with Duck Tape. My younger son got some in his stocking at Christmastime, and well, ummmm, he hasn’t exactly had the chance to use it, because I’ve kind of claimed it as my own.

How fun is this stuff? Michael’s Crafts has every colour and pattern imaginable, but Amazon.com also carries them, and you can order yours right here, from my site, by clicking on any of the rolls of tape that you see here. This is just a small sampling of what you’ll find over at Amazon!. Aren’t they awesome?

Ok, back to the drop zone:

All you’re going to do is cover your cardboard tube with a few length-wise strips of your Duck Tape. It took 3 strips of tape and about 5 minutes of my time to make this:

Isn’t that snazzy?

I took a couple more pieces of tape, and attached the tube to the side of our art cupboard.

Then I set out a small selection of goodies for the hooligans to drop through the tube and into the basket below.

We use wine corks, coloured craft-sticks and a few building blocks.

Have a look around your toy-room, and you’ll probably come up with plenty more ideas: small plastic animals, pom poms, markers. As long as they’ll fit in to the tube, they’ll work.

Mind you, we had some fun testing things that didn’t fit too!

This was a simple activity to set up, and the 3 year olds enjoyed it as much as the 1 year olds. I think it would be fun to try this outside, in the Spring, when we can attach several tubes to our chain link fence, but this little drop-zone will keep us happy for the few weeks that we have left of winter.

If you’re looking for a few more simple ways to put cardboard to good use with your hooligans, check out our Easy Indoor Cardboard Hopscotch, our nifty DIY Cardboard Construction Set, and our simple Cardboard Structures!

This is a fabulous toddler and preschooler activity that will cost you nothing to make. Create a simple cardboard Drop Box yourself, using items you already have around your home! You’re gonna love it!

With the last week of summer holidays wrapping up, I really should be organizing school supplies, and pulling my house back together after doing a bare minimum of house-work these past 2 months. Instead, I immersed myself in this little project, and I must say I am SO looking forward to presenting it to the Hooligans!

I was first inspired to make this when I saw pictures of the drop box that Play at Home Mom had made.

Here’s what I did:

I started with a good sized box, some Sharpies, a paper cutting knife, and a few objects for dropping. I would think of more “drop-ables” as I worked away.

I started by cutting holes for the foam shapes, and outlining with the sharpies. That area will be fun for a little match and drop area. Then I grabbed a handful of paint chip samples, and cut slits in the box, and outlined the slots with 8 different colours. The paint chips are various shades of each colour, so the Hooligans will have to decide which colour family each paint chip belongs to.

Next, I drew upper and lower case letters on “popsicle” craft sticks, and made a small drop slot for each one. On the backs of the sticks, I drew coloured circles, squares and triangles, for the little ones who don’t yet know their letters.

I picked out several coloured blocks from our block bucket, and drew corresponding shaped and coloured holes for those to be dropped through.

And the final activity was numbers. A few dominoes and numbered holes will encourage counting and matching.

When I was finished, I cut 2 holes to sink a couple of containers into. The box wasn’t big enough for any more than 2. It would have been nice to be able to fit all 4 containers across the top, but c’est la vie. When you’re ready to pack it away, you can store the containers and drop-ables inside the box.

Doesn’t it look inviting? I had a lot of fun working on it. I always find this kind of thing therapeutic, and kind of lose myself in the process, so it was a relaxing way to spend the afternoon.

I think this is going to be very popular with my little friends! I can’t wait for them to see it next week.

***************UPDATE************* One and a half years later, this drop box gets pulled out and played with almost every day by one hooligan or another. Despite the fact that it’s been stepped on and sat on by a couple of the babies (and therefore the sides and top are kind of crunched in), this is still one of the all-time favourite activities in the playroom!

If you’d like more ideas for creating easy activities from recycled materials, here are a few more treasures we’ve made from our trash!