popsicle sticks Archives | happy hooligans

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!

I tend to get a little carried away with the Christmas crafts at this time of year! Last year, we set out to make a different tree ornament every day in the month leading up to Christmas. By the time the holidays rolled around, the Hooligans had made enough ornaments that parents were joking that their trees were starting to lean over under the weight of them all. We had a ton of fun making them and they’re all beautiful enough to be displayed with pride. Sadly, there were pictures that are somehow missing in action, but here are some of our Christmas crafts that will hopefully inspire.

simple enough for even the littlest fingers, thread beads onto a metallic pipe-cleaner, and bend into a Chrstmas tree

Cut 2 mittens from felt. Glue a cotton ball to the cuffs. Decorate with buttons and join mitts with a piece of wool.

Paper Mache Gingerbread houses made from juice/milk cartons and colourful foam bits.

Gingerbread Man – I don’t think this needs explaining.

I Spy Ornament: My very favourite! Fill a plastic ornament (I got these at Michael’s) with artificial snow and tiny objects (lego, paperclips, beads, buttons), and attach an I Spy List. So pretty and so fun for little ones.

tissue paper and toilet roll poinsettia ornament

Poinsettias: wrap a toilet roll with red paper and then cut into 5 pieces about 1 inch thick. Flatten them out to get petal shape. Glue tissue paper to tops and let dry. Hot glue petals together and top with a button.together at center. Glue some artificial leaves to the back. We added glitter glue to the petals as well.

foam and popsicle stick snowman ornament

Snowman sticks: I had a foam snowman craft kit so we used the hats, noses and scarves from that, and glued them onto popsicle sticks that we’d painted white. Add some eyes and some buttons and you’re done.

Candy house: Cut house and roof from cardboard and cover with cardstock. Decorate with colourful buttons, ribbon and foam bits.

Cut cardboard stars and wrap with wool, securing with hot glue.

toilet roll nativity set - christmas craft

These were the biggest hit of the season last Christmas. I made a set for each Hooligan. Every set had the same cast of characters (Mary Joseph, Baby Jesus in a manger, Wiseman, Angel and Shepherd), but I used different fabrics for each set so everyone’s was unique. Cut toilet roll tubes in varying heights. I covered the face portion with cardstock and the body with scraps of fabric. Decorate with beads, buttons, wool, jewels etc. The manger was a toilet tube cut in half long ways and filled with straw coloured wool. The stable is a shoebox decorated with scrapbook paper. When the kids are finished playing, the characters are kept in the box. These were a ton of fun to make, but stock up on hot glue sticks…I used a LOT!

These were the absolute cutest! Toilet paper tubes covered in quilt batting. Cut hat and scarf from fleece (cinch hat with rubber band and fringe the top). Googly eyes, a felt nose and rosy cheeks.

A few other crafts that we made can be seen here: but I didn’t keep pictures of were:

Star of David: paint 6 popsicle sticks white and glue into a star shape. Once dry, glue sparkly gems on.

Easy Icicles: Have kids thread beads onto a pipecleaner. Bend the top end to form a hook or loop.

Button Wreath: Cut a small wreath out of cardboard and have kids paint it red or green. Glue buttons all around and add a bow.

As I sit here writing this, it’s a warm summer day – kind of hard to get my head around Christmas!