Subscribe To This Site

Crafts for children: Easy train to make from leftover tablet cartons

These easy train crafts for children ages 4 to 10 make use of small cardboard boxes that once held tablets, soaps and perfumes. Here are two ideas to reuse and recycle boxes and lids and have fun making your own toys at the same time. Of course, enlisting the help of your children will make the experience worthwhile.

Save and keep all the small card boxes in a safe place, ready to use when you need them. The plastic lids of water bottles and other containers can be used as wheels or headlights.

You will need:

- A selection of card cartons of various sizes; - A selection of bottle caps and lids of various sizes; - Craft paints; - Egg boxes; - Toilet roll inners; - Craft glue; - Coloured pipe cleaners.

Method:

Arrange and stick together two or three boxes in the shape of the locomotive. Use the biggest box for the boiler and a smaller one for the cab section.

Split open two toilet roll inners and stick one over the top of the boiler section. Use the other for the shade section over the roof of the cab. Cut two singler egg sections from the egg box and use one as a dome on the boiler and the second as a cowcatcher on the lower front of the locomotive. Take a toilet roll inner and make several short cuts about ten millimeters long into the one end. Bend these cut sections over carefully until flat. These will give the smokestack, or chimney, a strong base to stand up straight.

Use an oblong box for the tender section. Make a small hole at the back of the locomotive and another at the front of the tender, about half way up the box. Thread the pipe cleaner through both holes to keep these two sections together.

Once finished and dry, glue the lids on the side as wheels. Use big lids for the driving wheels and smaller ones for the leading and trailing wheels.

Cut and place suitable sized lengths of pipe cleaner as spokes and use a pop top drinking lid or a film canister as a chimney decoration. Once you have the basic shapes glued together, paint the locomotive using colours of your choice.

Don't forget to make passenger wagons and boxcars for the train to pull along. Paint the passengers on the side as they peer out of the windows at the scenery.

Now stand back and admire your handiwork and watch your children play with this crafts for children train toy they helped to make.

Variation: Using the same basic materials as for the easy train crafts, make a car or truck. Use your imagination and creative skills to modify and make a variety of vehicles. Back to crafts for children

Return Home to top 10 parenting tips

SBI!