We made a pair of binoculars before we went "bear hunting" one day. We ended up geocaching and Cole loved bringing them along and looking through them to find the caches. They are still in my care "just in case we need them" per Cole. They are really easy to make and you can decorate them any way you'd like. We painted two toilet paper tubes. Using 2 glue dots, I stuck them together. I ended up reinforcing with clear packing tape and that seemed to do the trick to hold them together. You could decorate the rolls with markers, stickers, paint or even patterned paper wrapped around and glued to each tube. You could hole punch the top and add string or ribbon to tie around your neck, like a real pair of binoculars.
If only Cole would allow us to give him a haircut! This is a fun way to practice cutting skills. Draw a face on a toilet paper tube with a marker. I used a sharpie and added sticky back googly eyes. Cut slits from the top to just above the eyes. This is the "hair." Have the child pull one strand of hair down and cut it. Keep going until the whole head of hair is cut. We tried using Kids scissors for this but the cardboard roll was a bit too thick for them. With adult supervision, you could have the child use bigger scissors. I had to keep prompting Cole to push the hair to the back of the scissors to cut more easily. He thought this activity was pretty silly. MAYBE he will let us cut his hair now...
I like to use a Tupperware lid as paint tray because for some reason, there are always a lot of those and they are super easy to clean, especially if you use a kid's washable paint. We used Crayola Washable Paint and I squirted out 3 colors - white, purple and blue because that's what we had on hand. Dip the end of the toilet paper tube into the paint then stamp it onto paper. We used a giant roll of accordion folded brown packing paper. Try cutting the toilet paper tube and bending it into a heart or leaf shape to create different art.
I don't like snakes but this is a very cute one! We painted the tube with some paint then polka dotted it with our fingers. Let it dry - this may take hours depending on the amount of paint used. Using sharp scissors that will easily cut through the layers, cut the tube in a spiral all the way through so you have a snake coil. We tried to get the head thicker than the tail. Add googly eyes. I love the kind that are like stickers so you can just peel and stick. You can add a red tongue if you'd like out of construction paper, ribbon or scrapbook paper.
DIY kazoo! This takes some practicing to perfect the sound and thankfully doesn't seem as loud as a real kazoo. All you need is a rubber band or hair elastic, (why do I not have rubber bands in this house?) wax paper, a toilet paper tube and a toothpick or skewer. Tear off a square of waxed paper and wrap it over one end of the toilet paper tube. Secure it in place with the elastic then trip the excess. Poke holes through the top using the toothpick or skewer. You could decorate this one too. Put your mouth on the other side (you'll have to try to seal up the whole end with your mouth) and hum - it sounds like a kazoo!!
What crafts have you made using toilet paper tubes? Let me know if you try one of these!
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