paper play activities

Play today is rolling along. Does your child play with paper tubes and rolls? Whatever you do, don’t throw them out ‘cuz they are treasure.

This is yet another example of how kids will play with what adults consider trash. To a child, a paper roll or tube is a magic wand. Only the magic word Imagination-cadabra is needed to turn it into a lightsaber, a tunnel for cars and trucks, a sword for a knight or a pirate, a tree, log, cane, bridge, witch’s broomstick, galloping horse, or whatever else is wanted for play. Little Sister created art-on-the-move as she colored on one roll after another after another.

She’s done other art with them too. A paper tube has been used as a custom paintbrush for stamping hearts and fireworks. After painting a tube one day, she also tried rolling it on a paper to see how that would work. To her delight, she could paint the tube over and over and cover several pieces of paper. She was in paint heaven. Hy herself she extended her play with paper tubes and rolls.

One small tissue roll can be turned into a kazoo with a piece of waxed paper and an elastic band. Many rolls together can be assembled for a variety of projects. Big Sister spent an entire afternoon building an Elsa castle. Really long tubes are fun to make tunnels for cars. In order to get a car to roll down and shoot out the other end, the tube has to be held at just the right height. Too flat and the car is slow, too high and the car turns over and just crashes. In the video below, this child engineered a marble run. This undoubtedly took a lot of experimenting to find the best slope so the marbles would have enough speed but still stay in the run.

Paper rolls and tubes are more than a wardrobe accessory for dress-up play. Armed with these trusty weapons, children practice being brave and powerful. Maybe it’s a good thing that cardboard and paper tubes and rolls can’t be purchased on their own. Part of the delight is in finding them.

As kids claim and transform a paper roll, they are making it their own, and in a way, isn’t the purpose of play to create and transform ourselves?

Paper isn’t a toy, but it’s playful. These ideas for child’s play with paper are another way that kids can play with ordinary, everyday non-toy items. While we buy toys for children, they make April Fools of us by playing with anything.

Usually, when we think of activities with paper, what comes to mind is drawing, coloring, cutting, and gluing but paper is also fun to rip, crinkle, bend, fold, and throw. However kids play with paper, they are problem-solving, experimenting, discovering, creating, communicating, organizing, planning, interacting, sharing, negotiating, and more. Paper is stacks of fun and learning and suitable for kids of all ages as long as they don’t eat it.

One of the first things that kids discover with paper is that it makes sounds when scrunched up or torn. They soon figure out how they can tear it. Paper can be rolled and thrown to be a ball that doesn’t hurt. A paper ball won’t float in the air like a sheet of it. A paper airplane not only floats, it flies. Older kids and adults will fold paper to see which kind of paper airplane will fly the farthest. Sometimes, airports will have paper airplane contests and give prizes. Paper can also be folded into easy shapes like tents or incredible origami ones shaped like animals, birds, and baskets. Holes add a whole new dimension to paper, turning a piece of paper into a mask or a lacy snowflake.

Kids play with sheets of paper and tiny little bits. It behaves differently when it’s wet than when it’s dry. Does paper float or sink? If we fold paper to make a boat, what happens?

Paper comes in different sizes, colors, thicknesses, and texture. It’s easy to accumulate lots of paper for playing by saving it in a basket or box. It can be used for countless art projects and other play activities. Big Sister noticed some tissue paper was orange like fire. The recycling had some other colors too. Using colors she saw in flames, she scrunched them into a box for an imaginary campfire. A cotton ball and chopstick made the marshmallow for roasting. Imagination can turn paper into restaurant orders, post office letters, messages in secret codes, and play money.

Even without words, paper can tell a story. Child’s play with paper is quite a story, isn’t it?