The Educators' Spin On It

Learning Games and Activities

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Make Your Own Eco Friendly Blocks

Here’s a quick and easy way to create eco-friendly blocks using everyday items around the house.  Since these items are on their way to the recycle bin, why not have some fun and reuse them instead? 

Grab your empty cereal boxes and old magazines, and let’s have some fun! 

We’re going to make personalized blocks for your child to play with.

Making Blocks from Recycled Cardboard and Magazines

Supplies:

  • Cardboard
  • Old Magazines
  • Glue or tape
  • scissors
  • Marker

Directions

  1. Trace block pattern onto cardboard and then cut out. 
  2. Fold on all of the lines and tabs to create the block shape. 
  3. Using glue or tape attach sides together, the tabs help to make the box more durable for little hands. 
  4. Using your formed block you can trace around the photos you want to use. The options for photos are limitless from themes, celebrations or learning.  Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, Friends, Animals, Letters are just a few that come to mind. 
  5. Once you trace the image out, cut it and glue it onto the block. Both of my girls love doing this with me and they are 5 and 1, so it’s a fun sibling activity. 
  6. If you want extra protection and support for when you have finished you can always cover it with tape or contact paper. 

Here’s a step by step tutorial for more details.

We used images from one of our favorite magazines to make our blocks. They are eco friendly and publish their magazine online too. My children and I both love looking at and reading the magazines together and learning about our community. The photographers create such beautiful images and we enjoy reusing them. 

We even found images from our doctor, dentist, preschool and favorite playground,  so we’ve made “About Me” boxes too.

Why make blocks?  Here’s our Top Reasons why your babies, toddlers and preschoolers should be playing with blocks!  We’ve included some Block Activities too! 

Here’s the template to create your own block, but truthfully it’s easy to just find a square shape you like, trace it , and just add tabs to the core pieces and you’re all set. 

We’re going to be creating Mother’s Day Blocks for their Grandma’s and I have a feeling Daddy will be getting them too for his desk at work for Father’s Day!

We’ve been sharing Eco Friendly Ideas all week for Earth Day and helping us get ready for activities Screen Free Week April 30 to May 6.

Need some more ideas for using recycled items? Check out the following… We’ll be sharing more next week too!  Hope you’ll join us!

Crafts and Activities Using Recycled Items

Don’t forget to RECYCLE when you are done with them!

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Comments

  1. These are even easier if you use square tissue boxes. Just cut the top with the hole off of one and slide it over a second. Super strong and little assembly required.

  2. Neat idea! These would make such a nice personalized gift for a child. Thanks for sharing this idea at the Kid's Co-op.

  3. This is so fun! I bet they even looked cool before adding the personalized pictures. Thanks for sharing. 🙂

  4. Thanks Chrissy! And thanks or sharing this post on your facebook page. I can't wait to see how yours turns out. Feel free to share it on our facebook page or email it to me at [email protected]

  6. Cool idea! Wish I could send you a snapshot of my kitchen counter.. a pasta box, a Wheat Chex box, and a MultiGrain Cheerios box, plus one egg carton. I'm saving them from the recycling bin so Hubby doesn't put them out! 🙂

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