Activity:
Cardboard Box TV
Here’s a TV you won’t mind your kids staring at for hours...a cardboard TV that is! When they’re in charge of the design, the programming, and the technology, it’s hard to see television as anything but educational. It’s not a flat-screen, but you can’t beat the price.
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What You Need:
- Large cardboard box
- Large roll of white drawing paper (such as butcher paper or easel paper)
- Magic markers and crayons
- Paint
- Decorative materials (optional)
- Scissors or a craft knife
- Glue
What You Do:
- Remove the top of the box and discard. Set the box on its longest side, so the open part of the box is to the back.
- Cut a large rectangle from the front (the part facing you) of the box. This will be your television screen.
- Cut a slit on either side of the box long enough to accommodate the paper. You will be threading the paper through vertically.
- Decorate the cardboard tv by painting it and gluing on whatever decorative materials you might have handy.
- Unroll the paper and have your child illustrate a story on the paper, starting at the beginning of the roll. Try to be sequential (“Goldilocks is trying the porridge. Goldilocks is going upstairs”) but don’t worry too much about plot line at this point.
- Roll the paper back up again.
- Thread the beginning of the roll of paper through both slits in the box, with the drawing facing out through the box.
- To turn on the television, one child will have to stand on one side of the TV and draw the paper through the slits while a helper stands on the other side and supports the heavier roll of paper.
Now it's showtime! Invite friends and family to watch your child's creation, or have Mom and Dad man the TV while your child enjoys his homemade television show!
