Ways to Use Cardboard Boxes to Make Free Toddler Toys

Cardboard boxes are everywhere and we can reuse them to make enjoyable, fun and free toys. Try these activities in English with your child. Don’t throw away boxes anymore!

(This is a guest blog post written by a wonderful Turkish mother, Gülce, who is raising a bilingual son. Please follow her Instagram account for more tips.)

Matching Pairs

This is a matching activity on a topic you would like to teach. The pictures may be about animals, fruits, places or whatever you like. Your child is going to find the matching pairs. We prefer this game with animals because my son loves them.

For this activity, the materials you need are:

A large, flat piece of cardboard
Wet wipe lids (or make paper flaps)
Pictures from magazines or leaflets or stickers

How to prepare this activity:

Cut a large piece from a box.
Gather some glue, scissors and pictures or stickers.
Glue the lids onto the cardboard.
Place the pictures or stickers in the lids randomly.

2) Sorting Shapes

Materials:

Cardboard box
Coloured paper or paint/pens
Scissors

How to prepare this activity:

Get a big cardboard box and draw the shapes on it where you will make holes.
Cut the shapes out to leave holes.
Draw small shapes to sort into the holes and paint them.
Ask your child to post the small shapes into the correct holes.

3) Brushing Teeth

Materials :

cardboard
felt tip pen
beans
sponge or an old toothbrush

How to prepare this activity:

Draw a face and big mouth.
Glue the beans into the mouth and colour some of them to look unclean.
Cut the cardboard into a stick and stick a piece of sponge on it to make a toothbrush.
Tell your child to brush the teeth and teach them all the related vocabulary.

4) Emotions

Materials:

cardboard
toilet roll tubes
wool, wiggly eyes (optional)
felt tip pens

How to prepare this activity:

Cut the cardboard according to the length of the tissue roll tubes.
Draw faces showing different emotions on each tube.
You and your child can act out the different emotions and point to the correct tube. You can think of examples of situations for each emotion.

5) Colours with Elephants

Materials:

cardboard
felt tip pens
wiggly eyes
pegs
How to prepare this activity:

Draw elephant faces on the cardboard.
Colour the ears in different colours.
Stick the eyes on.
Colour each peg.
Your child must attach each peg (trunk) to the matching elephant.

Have fun playing and learning!

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