It’s time for another Tinkerlab Creative Challenge!
The item this month is an egg carton and we definitely have lots of those in our craft cupboard right now! Last Friday the big kids each got an egg carton to create something with.
The almost 4 year old got right to work cutting even though he wasn’t quite sure what he wanted to make yet. After he had cut the cup section into 3 parts he announced he was going to make a game and would know what kind of a game it was going to be after he finished painting it.
The 6 year old turned her carton around in her hands a couple times and decided it would make a perfect play computer. She thought this would be especially good because we only have one pretend laptop and they usually need more than one computer when they’re playing. She cut the top off of the carton and flipped it over so that the the inside of the top could be the computer screen.
She painted the “keys” each a different color and traced and cut out paper to cover the writing on the top of the carton.
After the almost 4 year old had finished painting he decided the cartons were going to be “catchers” and that they needed handles. He cut and painted a paper towel roll to attach to the bottom to use to hold it.
I hot glued the rolls to the cartons for the game and the top onto the bottom of the carton to make the computer.
And here’s the finished game! Instead of catching a ball in the cups he wanted to try and catch jelly beans — and his little sister agreed that was a wonderful idea!
Other than making a computer for their pretend play the oldest didn’t have an exact plan for how they were going to use it until it was done. Since then they have used it in their “office” to work on their website, to practice “typing” colors, and as part of an I Spy game that all three of them understood the rules too even though I never did. Upcycled, simple to make, and full of pretend play opportunities — I love it!
So far neither of the little two have caught a jelly bean in their “catchers,” but they have had lots of fun (and eaten lots of jelly beans) trying!
To see what other bloggers and their kids have done with egg cartons check out:
Tinkerlab’s Creative Challenge: Egg Carton post
What have you created using an egg carton? We’ve still got some left. 🙂
tricia says
April 9, 2012 at 9:52 pman egg carton computer????? That is so smart!!!!
I was thinking of running a post on some pretty ingenious kid improvisations….today, I found my son had rolled out my yoga mat on our curly-carpeted floor. It made a really cool, smooth race track for all his monster trucks! I thought that was so smart, too. haha! Kids.
Megan says
April 10, 2012 at 11:08 amI agree! I bet you could even do a runnning series of posts based on kid ideas. I know we’d love to read it!
And I’m totally getting my old yoga mat for cars now too — tell your son that’s a great idea!
Rebekah @ The Golden Gleam says
April 9, 2012 at 10:57 pmYour kids are so creative. Now, I want to make an egg carton catcher to see if I could catch some jelly beans. =)
Megan says
April 10, 2012 at 11:01 amThey’ll be thrilled with the complement! Thanks! We ran out of jelly beans before either of the little kids were able to catch them! Although my 6 year old and I got pretty good at it during nap time. 😉 Thanks for stopping by!
Chrissy @ The Outlaw Mom Blog says
April 10, 2012 at 2:13 amLove the egg catcher idea! I so see this game being played at our house. I have a stock of cartons piling up and was thinking about a throwing game (toss the beans into the carton), but catching them in the “egg catcher” sounds more fun!
Megan says
April 10, 2012 at 10:58 amThey have definitely had fun with it — and finished all of our jelly beans in the process! They’ve switched to mini-paper balls and are enjoying just as much. It’s so cool to see what great ideas they come up with. Neither of the things they made were anything I would have thought of! Love these challenges!
Susan Case says
April 10, 2012 at 2:03 pmLooks like a great learning game. Thanks for sharing. Hopping around from the Linky Party.
Megan says
April 10, 2012 at 7:59 pmThanks for stopping by!
Jen says
March 31, 2013 at 2:49 amVery innovative! This is very creative and perfect for the kids! I really loved the materials you put to complete this. We did an Egg Carton Color Sorting Activity game out of the same materials you used. You should check it out! 🙂
EarlyLearning.Momtrusted.com: Preschool Egg Carton Color Sorting Activity
Megan Sheakoski says
March 31, 2013 at 6:58 pmThanks Jen! I’ll check it out!