By Providence Children’s Museum
This weekend, Providence Children’s Museum invites kids and families to design and build original creations using cardboard, recycled materials and their imaginations. They’ll collaborate to invent and construct games, gadgets, robots, rocket ships and much more!
The event is part of the Global Cardboard Challenge, the second annual worldwide celebration of child creativity and the role of communities in fostering imaginative play, that was inspired by the film “Caine’s Arcade”.
But the fun isn’t limited to the Museum — kids can create their own cardboard challenge at home! Gather materials including scissors, tape, glue, chalk, crayons and markers and…
Collect cardboard in its many wonderful forms
- Boxes of all sizes — big appliance boxes, shoe boxes, tiny jewelry boxes and everything in between
- Paper towel, toilet paper and wrapping paper tubes
- Leftover pieces of packaging and the backs of writing pads
Create a cardboard world
- Cut doors and windows in big boxes to make castles, forts or houses that you and your friends play in. Decorate with colored chalk, pieces of fabric, ribbon and tape.
- Use small boxes to make a world for action figures, dolls and toy animals. Use cardboard scraps to create houses, furniture, vehicles and more.
- Make a little diorama (a scene) in a shoebox.
- Make mazes and roller coasters for marbles or small balls. Tape cardboard tubes together and roll balls through them.
A note to grown-ups
- Give your kids time and space to create. If you can, let them have an area that they can return to day after day. It will be messy but the best play often is.
- Watch to see when and where they need help. Kids’ scissors won’t cut a window in a big box, so ask your child to draw the window with chalk and cut it out for him with box cutters.
- Take the time to observe your children’s process as well as their creations.  You’ll be delighted by their ingenuity, persistence and imagination.
Cardboard Challenge takes place at Providence Children’s Museum on Saturday, October 5 and Sunday, October 6 from 11:00 AM – 2:00 PM and is recommend for ages 5 and up. Activity is free with Museum admission; for more information, visit www.ChildrenMuseum.org.
