Contained Chaos: Cardboard Accessories
This week Abby got a new Thomas the Tank Engine Play Set. What a tomboy, right? Well, she adores it. She will sit there and take it apart, put it back together, and enact various Thomas incidents (“NayNay, Thomas has a special Special, but there’s a cow on the tracks!”. So I figured our craft today should be something that involved her new obsession. Otherwise I don’t think I could have dragged her away from it :) And alas, accessories for Thomas’ track were born.
Supplies
- Cardboard
- Markers
- Scissors
- Craft Sticks
- Cookie Cutters (optional)
Directions
The Station was pretty simple. Just take a cardboard box and cut it until it is the size needed for your train tracks. Be sure to cut the hole tall enough for the train to fit through! (This is something I neglected to do…). Now you can let your little ones color to their heart’s content. And don’t forget to give the station a neat name. Abby insisted that ours be called NayNay’s Station #2. Not quite sure why we skipped #1, but hey, it’s her craft :)
The trees are a bit more difficult logistically, but still not extensively hard. Take a piece of cardboard and draw the outline of a tree on it. I let Abby help me trace a cookie cutter for our trees. Now cut them out and let the kids color them. No need to stick to green – Thomas likes purple trees too! Don’t let the little ones stop with the trees though. Have them color a few craft sticks as well, preferably the same color as their trees. Now cut the craft sticks in half and place them through a slit in the middle of the trees (making the slit can be difficult – you might want to try using a knife). And voila – you have a forest made completely from…trees (cardboard is paper after all)!
