Toddler Tuesday: TP Tube Family

This week's activity turned out so cute and was FREE to make because it used supplies that I already had around be house. 

Here are he supplies you'll need:

toilet paper tubes
photo paper, card stock or any other paper
scissors
packing tape, contact paper and/or glue

You'll also have to do a little bit of prep work. I took pictures of family members on my iPhone whenever we saw them and collected toilet paper tubes for a couple of weeks. You could also ask nearby friends and family to hang on to their extras if you are a teacher doing this for a classroom or if you're just in a hurry to make such a fun activity for your toddler!

First, I measured the toilet paper tube so I'd know what size pictures to print. 

A little over 4 inches.

Then I printed my photos. 

3.5 x 5

When I took them, I tried to fill up the height of the frame so that we'd be about the same height as the tubes. 

Then I cut us all out. 

The next step was to tape all of us on with packing tape:

You could also use clear contact paper for this step.

I originally used the tape to make these water resistant and I'm sure glad I did. Our little toilet paper tube family has not been swimming yet but the first thing Ayden tried to do when I gave him these was to tear the pictures off the tubes. The tape protected our mini selves from that fate. I used a very thin brand of packing tape (Uhaul, leftover from our move) and it creased and bubbled so easily. In my teacher days, it was USPS or Duct Tape brand packing tape all the way!  Those brands are nice, thick, and super easy to work with. 

Here's our little man in action:

He had a lot of fun with this activity. He had us driving around in his big Lego truck, would line us up then knock us down and really enjoyed havig conversations with us all. 

To extend this activity further, you could have your child paint or decorate the tubes in some way before adding the pictures. Older children can even help with the process by cutting out the pictures or even learning how to take, import and print the pictures in the first place. 

During my time spent as a teacher, I used toilet paper tubes in all kinds of fun ways. I think my students would have loved a class set of these in the block area in my classroom!  It could also be done with animals, street signs, trees, or anything else you can print from clip art or the Internet. Whether at home or school, this activity is a must try!

Do you have any creative toilet paper tube ideas to share?

~Sarah

Click here for more early childhood activity ideas!

Flashback!  Here's what we were up to one year ago today: "What Life Is All About"

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