Maker Monday: Cardboard Tube Houses

Homes with maker kids are guaranteed to have a bin filled with cardboard tubes from paper towels and toilet paper rolls. You never know when you need them! Like today, for example. Our Maker Monday project is all about creating Cardboard Tube Houses.

Give kids the basic idea and tools and they will surprise you with the many ideas they come up with. Our session’s final products included a castle, a birdhouse, a whimsical fairy home and even SpongeBob SquarePants’ pineapple house under the sea.

We’d love to see photos of the houses your kids create, too.

Supplies:

Cardboard tubes

Construction paper, card stock and/or standard white paper

Glue, tape and/or glue stick

Scissors

Markers or crayons

Ruler

Cupcake papers (optional for a “roof”)

Measure the height of the tube against the paper, mark the paper with a ruler and cut the paper. Roll the paper around the tube, mark off the size needed and trim to fit.

Lay the paper flat and begin to decorate according to your design idea. It is much easier to draw and paste details on a flat paper than to try to do it on the rounded tube surface. Once completed, wrap the paper around the tube and tape into place. Top with a cupcake paper roof or build your own. We made spikey pineapple leaves for SpongeBob’s house and trimmed the birdhouse cupcake paper to resemble leafy palms.

Here’s how we made the castle with a longer paper towel roll. It would be cool to add a pennant and maybe a princess waving from the top.

For more Maker Monday projects and other fun stuff for kids, visit the Kidsburgh Activities page.