Thinking inside the box!
With the popularity of online shopping, cardboard boxes are a regular feature in many homes. So, before you add these boxes to the recycling pile, consider how they can be used in play!
With a humble cardboard box, the opportunities for imaginative play, vocabulary development, and fine motor skills practice are endless.
It can be a fun way to spend a rainy day or pass the time without spending money in the school holidays!
Top tips:
- A cardboard box can become a plaything: it could be a car, robot or washing machine – your child might enjoy sitting in a larger box, pretending to zoom to the moon in a spaceship!
- A cardboard surface can be used for drawing and mark making: Mark Making – TLC
- Box play also offers options for extending your child’s small world play: for example, a shoebox could become a stable for horses, a garage for cars or a classroom for small dolls: Small World Play – TLC
- Get out the crayons, pens or even paints and colour the boxes: encourage your child to use different writing tools and to use scissors, glue and tape – this is important for the development of their fine motor skills
- Let your child take the lead and their imagination run wild: many Early Years Settings and Schools encourage this type of play, so your child might try to recreate something they have made at school – if they struggle to come up with ideas, then you could offer suggestions and help them with their creations
- Next time you are sorting the recycling: put aside some cardboard boxes, ice cream tubs, yoghurt pots, fruit containers, cereal boxes and egg cartons – show your child all the different objects and talk about their properties (size, shape, colour, material) and plan together what you could make from them!
- Doing your bit for the planet: reusing boxes for play is also helping our planet! Find out what more you can do by taking a look at Essex County Council’s Climate Action Resident Advice Pack
