If you are a strong believer in recycling different unused things, then try to recycle shoe boxes as these can be re-purposed to make something fascinating. Caregivers of Child Care South Pasadena, CA believe that kids can not only recycle these shoeboxes to create something useful but can also utilize them to make something entertaining for themselves. These, apparently useless boxes can inspire so much fun as they have unlimited play potential. Recycling shoe boxes is a great way to keep your kids engaged productive during their vacations.

Easy Shoe Box Craft Ideas for Children

Shoe boxes are ideal for kids’ art activities as they can be easily transformed into fun toys and cool crafts.

Aquarium

– If your child loves colors and sea animals, inspire them to make an aquarium out of a cardboard shoebox.

You need :

• A shoebox with a lid
• Watercolors
• Tread
• Scissors
• Glue
• Tape/ stapler

How to make :

• Cut some fish-shaped figures from the cover of the empty shoebox.
• Paint the figures using watercolors.
• Tilt the box and draw a few sea stars and shells on the floor of the aquarium.
• Paint the background blue and stick some figures on it.
• Hang the other figures from the top panel of the shoebox to complete the colorful aquarium.

Sensory game

– In Child Care South Pasadena, CA, Teachers build sensory game stations out of shoeboxes to challenge the kids to identify objects using their sense of smell and touch.

You need :

• Different things found about the house
• A shoeboxes
• A pen and paper for players
• A bag to hide the items

How to make :

• Cut out the hand-sized hole right in the middle of the top of a shoebox.
• Decide how many items to be shown and fill the box with different items.
• You can use cotton balls, toy cars, small plastic balls, marbles, and so on.
• Have the player insert their hand inside and define the objects using vocabulary like hard, smooth, soft, rough, etc.
• As they identify the object, let them talk a little bit about it.

Farm / Zoo

– Child Care South Pasadena, CA caregivers do this activity with kids to introduce them to different zoo animals.

You need :

• A shoebox with a lid
• Straws
• Small animal figures
• Playdough to model animals of their own choice
• Tape and scissors
• Watercolors

How to make :

• Stick one long side of the lid onto the shoebox.
• Cut the corners of the other long side of the lid so that it can flap open and close.
• Place the shoebox on its side. Flap open the lid and use it as the outdoor area of the farm.
• Paint the background and place the shoebox to crate caves, waterfalls, grass.
• Fill the space inside the box with the animal figure. Use straws to make a fence, smaller cardboard boxes for animal houses.

These are some of the DIY project ideas you can do with kids. But you may direct the activity depending on the age and interest level of your kids.