Inside this post, there are over 65 awesome cardboard box activities and crafts for kids!
Full disclosure?
I included a few posts that use empty toilet rolls too…
I know. Toilet rolls are not technically a box, but I just couldn’t pass up sharing these awesome TP posts with you too.
In fact, that’s how this post came together.
As a busy momma myself, I love sharing fun kids activities here at Happily Ever Mom that you can do RIGHT NOW. Without having to run to the store.
See, I’m willing to bet that…
- You have at least one Amazon Prime box hanging around (or you will in the next 48 hours- HA).
- And, at least one kid who will happily empty a toilet paper roll for you.
Yes?
Or, is it just my kids who like to decorate the bathroom by unrolling endless amounts of toilet paper? If you’re like me then let’s take those boxes and rolls to put them to AWESOME, fun use.
To make it easy for you to find what you need, I’ve divided these posts into two major categories:
-
Activities
-
Arts/Crafts
Then, I further subdivided the posts into categories with similar themes like building, painting, etc.
Ready??
Grab your cup of coffee and let’s get started with kid’s activities…
Cardboard Box Activities for Kids
Here are the 4 subcategories to check out below under “activities”: baby/toddler, indoor, learning, and building.
Baby/Toddler Cardboard Box Activities
- Poker chip drop | Happily Ever Mom
- Drive & Drop Box | Days with Grey
- Easy Box Road | Busy Toddler
- Book Drop | Happy Toddler Playtime
- Cardboard washing station | Toddler Approved
- Car dashboard | Lalymom
- Touch and Feel Board | Happily Ever Mom
- Cardboard Bulldozer | Lalymom
- Touch and Feel Cards | Teach Me Mommy
- Screws and anchors on a box | Simple Fun for Kids
- Sticky Cereal Box Puzzle | Munchkins and Moms
- Cardboard Car Ramp | Kids Activites Blog
- Cardboard tube ball drop | Happily Ever Mom
Fun Indoor Activities
- DIY Ball Ramp | Busy Toddler
- Cardboard stuffed animal house | Toddler Approved
- Cardboard hopscotch | Happy Hooligans
- Cardboard Game Board | LalyMom
- Name Pinata | Adventure in a Box
- DIY Cardboard maze | Extremely Good Parenting
- Car ramp races | Busy Toddler
- Make a Cardboard Projector! | Inner Child Fun *Watch the video to see how this works!
Learning Activities with Cardboard
- Sort and drop box with LEGO | Toddler Approved
- ABC matching box | School Time Snippets
- Make a kaleidoscope | Buggy and Buddy
- Bird Feeder | Mommy’s Bundle
- Marble Run | Little Bins for Little Hands
- Magnetic Marble Run | Go Science Girls!
- DIY Catapult | Go Science Girls!
- Make a Pulley | Go Science Girls!
- LightBox Magic | True Aim Education
- Counting Puzzles | The Mama Workshop
- Color Maze | Days with Grey
Building Activities
- Tools and cardboard station | Happy Toddler Playtime
- Cardboard Construction Set | Happy Hooligans
- DIY Toilet Paper Roll Blocks | Swoodnson Says
- Glowing TP Structures | Inner Child Fun
- Giant Building Blocks | Busy Toddler
- Hammering golf tees | Hands-on: As We Grow
Cardboard Box Activities: Arts/Crafts
Here are the 3 categories to check out below under “crafts”: paint activities, cardboard crafts that kids can play with, and fun cardboard box crafts.
Paint Activities with Cardboard
- Truck painting | Happily Ever Mom
- Pizza Box Easel | Munchkins and Moms
- TP shape Painting | Messy Little Monster
- TP Heart Painting | Dayna Bayna
- Paint a Puzzle | Days with Grey
- Pretend Cardboard Cookie Decorating | Inner Child Fun
- DIY Paint Pallete | Munchkins and Moms
- TP Stamp to make cards | A Crafty Arab
- Painting in a box | Simple Fun for Kids
- Recycled 3D Art | Red Ted Art
Cardboard Crafts for Dramatic Play
- Knight Shield | Red Ted Art
- Toilet Roll Rocket Ship | Mommy’s Bundle
- Cardboard Rocket Ship | Little Bins for Little Hands
- Cardboard Sword | Messy Little Monster*
- Cardboard Sword | Little Worlds Big Adventures*
*Check out both swords. Each one has a different design!
- Large Play Castle | There’s Just One Mommy
- Small Play Castle | Adventures in a Box
- Open-ended Castle | Fun-a-day
- Cardboard Helmet | There’s Just One Mommy
- Make Cardboard Popsicles | Creating Creatives
- Cardboard Bus | Toddler Approved
- Car Play Box | Teach Me Mommy
- Cardboard Mountain for Trains | Play Trains!
- Cardboard Dollhouse | Powerful Mothering
- Cardboard Guitar | Red Ted Art
- Cardboard cell Phone | Powerful Mothering
- Cardboard race car | Jeddah Mom
- Cardboard Car Wash | Non Toy Gifts
- Cardboard Airport | Non toy Gifts
Fun Cardboard Crafts for Kids
- Toilet Roll Flowers | The Best Ideas for Kids
- Shaving Cream Fun – Decorate the Cake| Days with Grey
- Extreme Boxes | Busy Toddler
- TP Cuff Bracelets | Creating Creatives
- 3D Bear | Brainy Beginnings Network
- Duct Tape TP Bracelets | Happy Hooligans
- Cardboard Box Aquarium | Molly Moo
- Toilet Paper Roll Bee | Thimble and Twig
- Cardboard Tube Family | Fantastic Fun and Learning
- TP Octopus | Crystal and Comp
- Bird Mobile | Mosswood connections
- Rainbow Loom | Days with Grey
I absolutely love this list of cardboard box activities and crafts because you can do them with your kids right now!
Well, unless you need a box…
In which case, you may need to click over to Amazon Prime.
Because you need a little something for yourself AND a box for your kids to play with right? 😉
*win/win*
Have fun!
~Katie
More Fun Activities from Happily Ever Mom
No doubt about it, cardboard boxes are always a hit with kids.
In fact, my 10 year old still loves it when we get packages in the mail. Right now we have a huge submarine they constructed sitting in our basement, in which they’ve taken many a pretend trip.
Thanks for including our castle and helmet in the line up!
You got it – love the castle and helmet idea! My kids would love it.
An outstanding share! I have just forwarded
this onto a coworker who was doing a little research on this.
And he in fact ordered me lunch simply because I discovered it for him…
lol. So allow me to reword this…. Thank YOU for the meal!!
But yeah, thanks for spending some time to talk about this topic here on your site.