Cardboard Box Overload

Do you have lots of empty boxes laying around after the holidays or birthdays? Use those boxes to inspire your child’s creativity, recycle and make family memories!

A cardboard box can be so much more than just a box! Here are some great books you can read together before starting your project!

Not A Box by Antoinette Portis

A Box Story by Kenneth Kit Lamug

A Box Can Be Many Things by Dana Meachen Rau

Craft Time!

Transforming your box:

1. Find an empty box (any size will work and you can use more than one box!)
2. Gather some supplies (construction paper, scissors, stickers, tape, glue, markers, paint, yarn, glitter, etc.!)
3. Brainstorm an idea! Ideas might include a castle, train, fort, mailbox, robot, car garage, lemonade stand, dollhouse, store, or costume.
4. Get to work creating your masterpiece! This kind of project will take some time and will require an adult or older sibling to help. Get the whole family involved for even more fun!

We made a castle and car garage! Both were a huge hit and lots of fun to create and play with. Letting your child use their imagination to create their own masterpiece is priceless. They take ownership of the project and will use problem solving skills, communication, and creativity. Enjoy!

Cardboard in the Classroom: Cardboard boxes can spark a lot of creativity in the classroom. Here are some ways to use cardboard boxes with your students:

1) Have students work in teams to create a new invention, or a building/home for a storybook character. Students can write about their experience afterwards and about what they created.

2) Cut up the boxes to use as covers for class books that the students create or to use as covers for books they write during Writer’s Workshop.

3) Use boxes to make parent gifts such as picture frames or ornaments.

4) Use them in a dramatic play center to make a kitchen, lemonade stand, house or store.

However you use them, just have fun!  Many children thrive when given the opportunity to be creative, learn through play and use their imaginations!