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Printing with Cardboard Shape Tubes

February 3, 2014 by Anna Ranson

Make your own shape printers using folded cardboard tubes, for easy grip and playful maths learning for toddlers and preschoolers! The resulting art work also looks lovely when turned into wrapping paper, wall art or cut to make further collage pictures.

Cardboard tube shape printers for toddler art

This activity is part of our new Toddler Play series, which celebrates simple and engaging play-times for 18 months to 3+ year olds. For this activity we combined art, motor skills and learning shapes with these super-easy DIY shape printers made from cardboard tubes!

We first made shaped tubes for one of our  Playful Maths activity we did where we used shape binoculars to go on a shape hunt around the house! We later used them to print with but didn’t have all of the shapes and it was time to make some more so little Bean could enjoy this too.

DIY shape stampers from cardboard tubes

 

I simply cut down a wrapping paper cardboard tube into similar length portions and then carefully bent and folded each one to represent 6 different shapes; circle, square, rectangle, triangle , heart and star. The star was quite tricky and lost its shape the fastest, but they still managed to create some lovely prints with it first.Toddler art printing with shape tubes

Then we added 6 different colours of paint to a large, silicone baking sheet (one of my favourite ways to present little ones with paint as it’s so easy to clean afterwards!) and dipped one shape into each colour. I laid out large pieces of A3 white paper and let them experiment with the prints that they could create. Long tubes like this make great print-making devices as they are easy  for little hands to grip and don’t slide around in the paint like flat printing materials are prone to do (which cause lots of frustration.)

Toddler shape printing activity

It’s good for simple problem solving skills too, such as “which part of this needs to be pressed onto the paper to make the shape appear?” , “what if I push it on sideways, what will happen?” , “can I do two at once? yes!”

Printing with two hands simultaneously is great for cross-lateral connections, a very important  part of development in early childhood.

Printing with cardboard shape tubes

Both Pop and Bean loved this simple activity and I loved watching how differently they approached it. Bean was experimental and loved layering and overlapping the shapes that she made, eventually fetching herself a paintbrush and painting inside some shapes and over the paper too. Pop meticulously covered the whole paper, making sure to use each shape and trying not to let any overlap. She named the shapes as she printed them and we talked abut the ones she didn’t know the names of and what they all looked like, using simple descriptive language e.g. round, straight, corners and edges. Bean pointed at all the stars and sang Twinkle Twinkle, her favourite song!

A series of toddler play activities from The Imagination Tree

To follow along our Toddler Play series, click the image and see our other ideas.

See a huge range of print-making activities in our archives

Cakie: 5.4

Pop: 3.10

Bean: 1.11

What they are learning as they play:

Maths: naming 2D shapes, talking about the basic properties of shapes e.g. round/ pointy/ straight edges etc, counting

Physical: gross motor co-ordination, rotating objects, pressing and printing, fine motor control

Creativity: naming colours, making patterns; overlapping shapes; exploring paint with hands, brushes and print-making materials

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  • DIY Patterned Wood BlocksDIY Patterned Wood Blocks
  • Winter Counting Sensory Table
  • Matchstick Colour Sorting Fine Motor Toy
  • Counting Spiders Sensory Maths TrayCounting Spiders Sensory Maths Tray

Filed Under: Age, Art, Art, Art and Craft, Cardboard Tube, Create, DIY, Learn, Make, Math, Motor Skills, Paint, Preschooler, Printing, Recycled Crafts, Shape Space and Measures, Shapes, Toddler, Toys & Games Tagged With: Art and Craft, Early Maths, Playful Maths, Toddler, Toddler Play

« Toddler Play: Matching Pairs Hide and Seek Game
Tissue Paper Bleeding Resist Art »

Comments

  1. Katie / The Surly Housewife says

    February 4, 2014 at 3:43 am

    With three girls in our house we have plenty of TP rolls lol. I will have to out them to better use and do some stamping. Thanks for the idea!!

  2. Anik says

    February 4, 2014 at 7:33 am

    What a great idea! My Mr Frog is a bit older but I’m sure he will have a lot of fun with it. I will collect cardboard tubes from today 🙂

  3. Kelly says

    February 4, 2014 at 9:31 pm

    This afternoon me and my son were using a small heart cookie cutter to make Valentines wrap but as always you have improved and extended an already enjoyable activity – thankyou!!

  4. Ranjini Mukherjee says

    February 6, 2014 at 7:43 am

    What a fantastic idea ! Will have to do this in class with the little ones . Thanks!!

  5. Emily says

    February 8, 2014 at 3:23 pm

    What a great idea, will definitely be using this at playgroup! Thanks!

  6. Monica says

    February 10, 2014 at 2:57 pm

    I saw on another site to put a piece of scotch tape around the shape after you formed it to help keep its shape. Hope that tip makes sense! 🙂 love this activity

  7. mummyc says

    February 28, 2014 at 4:37 pm

    How do you make a round toilet roll square? And the other shapes help!!

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Trackbacks

  1. 15 Fun Activities for 3 Year Olds! | Not Just Cute says:
    February 10, 2014 at 8:14 am

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    […] I see Imagination Tree also did one like this but got her star into the right shape! Check it […]

  3. 29 Fun Shape Activities - No Time For Flash Cards says:
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    […] Shapes Mural – cooperative art project using shapes. Shape Printing with Paper Tubes from The Imagination Tree Shape Firetruck. Firetrucks were the big thing around here for a long […]

  4. Bounty.co.nz | 21 Months Update » Bounty.co.nz says:
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    […] Craft & Art Activities, and Games to Play with Your Toddler. Today we are going to make some wrapping paper together using homemade […]

  5. Kleuren en vormen leren | Gespot voor jou! says:
    April 4, 2014 at 12:05 am

    […] jouw kind toe aan het leren van kleuren en vormen? Dan is dit een ideale activiteit. Meer dan verf en een aantal wc-rollen heb je niet nodig. Maak in iedere wc-rol een vorm: een […]

  6. Lucky Leprechauns and Rainbows | Crozet Play School says:
    April 14, 2014 at 3:45 am

    […] great shape project we did last month came from the Imagination Tree blog.  She posts about all sorts of things from sensory bins, art projects, and homemade light […]

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About The Imagination Tree Hello and welcome! I'm Anna, Mama of 4, early years teacher and play enthusiast from the UK! Click here to read more about me.

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