We use a lot of toilet paper at this house. With two newly potty-trained kiddos and one who is fascinated with all things potty, together use far more toilet paper than ever is necessary. My hubby thinks I’m crazy to keep all the leftover tubes of toilet paper, and my kids love getting to play and explore with our box of tubes! I love “free” toys! We recently had an elementary-aged neighbor over and our TP tube creations became much more elaborate than previous building ventures. All you need for an hour of fun learning is a collection of tubes. We also added index cards to make the structure more sturdy.
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We learned that not all toilet paper tubes (even if you consistently buy the same brand) are the same height. Before we began we sorted the tubes – short ones in one pile, taller ones in another. My son loved picking all the scraps of leftover paper off the tubes.
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Then we had great fun experimenting. Is it easier to build the tubes one on top of another, or one on top of a group? I loved watching them figure out weight distribution. It was easier to balance a tube on the intersection of three other tubes. We also learned that it is difficult to stack tubes on top of each other if they are laying on their side… but not impossible. My son is a quick problem solver and figured out that he could bend the tubes to make them better building surfaces.
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Have you played with your trash lately?
Check out all these toilet paper tube crafts!
For your little architects, see these building coloring pages!
i truly am amazed at all the ideas you have! your creativity is limitless! i’ve never handed out TP rolls, but the girls LOVE empty Kleenex boxes.
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My kids would love this – also looks like your son came up with a fun idea for binoculars :).
I’m actually an architect, so I truly can appreciate this! What a wonderful idea!!!
.-= Mary´s last blog ..Strawberries, anyone?? =-.
Cute activity and something we always have around.
We recycle them, why not play with them first!
My kids would love this!
I am so going to have to start saving our tp rolls! My 2 year old will love to play with these. I mean what kid wouldn’t choose cardboard over loud toys?
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You have such creative ideas for play. We also play in our trash quite a bit, but nothing quite this adventurous.
I’ve been a bit to cleaning oriented lately to keep toilet paper tubes. -But my kids have loved making puppets out of them in the past. My toddlers probably don’t even remember.
Nothing beats a free activity:)
What a neat idea and activity.
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This is such a great activity! I will need to save tubes to try this with JDaniel.