Objective:
Creating a DIY Barn for your child to play in out of old cardboard boxes.
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Materials
- Large box
- Scissors or box knife
- Duct tape (red, black, white)
- Spray paint or Acrylic paint
Books to Read
- Crunch and Crack, Oink and Whack! An Onomatopoeia Story
*Reading enhancing the learning environment
Chances are you have some cardboard boxes laying around your garage. Let’s turn those into something fun for your child to play with. This goes great with a Farm themed Birthday party or for your preschool Farm theme
Step 1:
We had ordered some patio furniture and had a few large boxes in our garage, so I took one of them and decided to turn it into a Barn. If you don’t have one large box, you can still create by duct taping smaller boxes together.
Step 2:
Next I cut the top flaps at an angle to create the peak of the barn, securing with black duct tape.
Step 3: I cut the opening for the door and started reinforcing the door with red duct tape.
Step 4:
I cut windows on each side and also reinforced those with red duct tape.
As you can see from the top, our “peak” of the barn doesn’t completely meet up. I did this on purpose so that (1) as a parent, I can easily see over into the barn (2) while using this inside of the house, it allows for some extra light and (3) I didn’t want to have to recut and tape to make it match up.
Step 5:
I started out by using spray paint in red and black but due to the smell, I had to keep creating outside. It started to rain and so I tried to hide our large Barn box inside of another large box.
The spray paint didn’t cover all of the black ink so I switched to using acrylic paint.
Paint Hack: wrap your paint pan with a plastic bag! When you're finished, simply pull off the bag, wrap it and toss it. No Mess - and we all know how busy life is.
Since I was taking this to my sister's house for my niece's birthday party (Farm Theme), I had to disable the entire thing by cutting the sides so it would fit into my car. Then used duct tape to tape it back together. But look how cute!
Step 6:
The barn was a hit and all the kids loved playing inside. We paired the barn with multiple sensory bins, all Farm themed of course.
Check out more Farm Themed Play
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Sensory Table:
I'm a huge advocate for sensory play even at the elementary school level.
