Cardboard - Page 35 of 36

Construction Paper Guitar

Using a large piece of cardboard or construction paper, draw the shape of the guitar’s body. If the child is able to draw it by himself, allow him to do so. Otherwise, let the child trace your drawing, using a thick marker.

Ask the child to cut out the shape, following the lines. Depending on the child’s skill level, make the line thicker, and provide support as needed. Once the child cuts out the guitar’s shape out, ask him to draw or trace a circle in the middle of the guitar’s body. You can use a round object to help with drawing an accurate shape.

Instruct the child to cut out the circle, providing support as needed.

Using a single hole puncher, carefully have the child punch three holes on either side of the circle he just cut. Using 3 rubber bands, ask the child to cut through them so they are now one long string.

Instruct the child to thread each rubber band across 2 parallel holes, and tie on each end. Provide support as needed for tying the rubbers in place.

Using another piece of cardboard or construction paper, ask the child to draw or trace a rectangle. Instruct the child to cut it out, and use the glue and tape to attach it to the top part of the guitar’s body. To make the guitar look more life like, ask the child to draw lines continuing from the bands up the stem of the guitar.

Fine Motor Marble Maze

In this activity, we create a marble maze to promote fine motor skills.

Start by gluing the straws on the cardboard. You will need to glue each straw on the opposite side as follows:

Glue the 1st straw aligned to the left edge of the cardboard
Glue next straw aligned to the right side of the cardboard
Keep gluing straws all the way to the bottom of the cardboard
Make sure to create a space for the marble to go through between the straws
The end result should look like this:

Let the glue dry.

We used a gallon size zip lock bag but you can use a smaller zip lock bag to create a smaller maze.

At the bottom edge of the zip lock bag, cut a small slit. Make sure you cut it on the side the marble will come out from.

Once the glue is dry and the straws are secured, insert the cardboard into the ziplock bag.

Close the ziplock bag almost all the way, leaving a small opening for the marble to fit in.

Put the marble through the opening and start moving it with your finger through the maze until it comes out at the bottom.

You can alternate the fingers you use to move the marble or you can use both hands to hold the cardboard and move it from side to side, letting the marble slide out.

Pom pom Bird

For this activity, you will need 3 pom-poms in different sizes. You can use almost any pom-pom color.

Start by instructing the child to cut an oval shape out of the cardboard (length should be about 2″ – 3″).

Glue the large pom-pom (red) to the oval-shaped cardboard. This will be the bird’s body.

Glue the medium pom-pom (red) on top of the large pom-pom. This will be the bird’s head.

Glue the smallest pom-pom (yellow) to the medium pom-pom forming a bird’s beak.

Glue the wiggle eyes above the beak.

Mixed Clothespins

For this activity, you will need to use 4 different colored clothespins.

Use the markers or crayons to paint each edge of the cardboard in one color.

Mix the clothespins.

Instruct the child to order the clothespins by matching the edge color to the clothespin color. The child should be using a different finger for each clothespin color (i.e., thumb and index finger for a yellow clothespin, thumb and middle finger for a red clothespin, thumb and ring finger for a green clothespin, and thumb and pinky finger for green clothespin).

For grading place all mixed clothespins on the cardboard and ask the child to pick them up and re-attach it to the right edge.

Push Ins

Start by making the shoe box and the cardboard discs. Cut a narrow slit on one side of the shoe box top and a small circle on the other side. The narrow slit will be used to insert the discs and the small circle will be used to insert the clothespins.

On the cardboard, draw 10 or more circles, about 3 inches in size. Cut out the circles and attach a clothespin to each circle.

Have the child separate the clothespins from the discs and insert the items through the right opening on the shoe box.

You can also place stickers on the circles and matching ones on the clothespins. After the child inserted the items, ask him to take them out of the shoe box and match each circle with the corresponding clothespin. You can also color the circles and the clothespins in different colors, and ask the child to match the items by color.