This article appeared in "First Teacher" magazine.
Resourceful teachers find useful items all around. With a few creative twists, cast-off items provide simple props for children's dramatic play.
Cardboard Boxes
| Houses and A Library: |
| Boxes of all sizes become exciting props for children. A large box from an appliance or furniture store quickly becomes a house. Turn the box upside down. Cut a large flap in the side for a door, and cut a few windows. Children enjoy coloring or painting their house and putting carpet squares inside. Offer wallpaper scraps and glue for the inside walls, or encourage children to hang their drawings on the walls. |
| Library/Quiet Center: |
| Add a few books and a sign above the door of the house, and you have a library. Or, hang a sign that says "Quiet Center." Children may take in a doll or a stuffed animal and a book to read to the doll. Two children enjoy reading together or playing a quiet game in this snug center. |
| Make A Table: |
| Office supply companies provide heavy cartons that once held copy paper. Remove the top. Turn the box upside-down and use a razor knife to cut it out so that what is left resembles a table. Cover it with wood patterned adhesive-backed paper. This little table is a perfect size for dolls, stuffed animals, and small children. |
| Baby Bed: |
| Make a bed for a baby doll. Use a razor knife to cut a copy paper carton about six inches from the bottom. Cover the outside with wood grained adhesive-backed paper. Cover the inside with patterned adhesive-backed paper. Put a pillow inside for a mattress, and add a receiving blanket or small afghan. |
| Tables and beds can also be made from heavy boxes you find at a grocery or drug store. |
Printer's Scraps
| Printing companies often have scrap paper to donate to schools. Look in the Yellow Pages for a print shop nearby. |
| A box of printer scraps is like a treasure chest! The contents are different every time depending on what jobs the printer has been working on. Sometimes you'll get large sheets of paper, sometimes ticket-size pieces. Children use the scraps for art/craft paper, money, note cards, invitations, tickets, and many other items. |
Curtains
| Dancer's Costume: |
| Use sheer curtains to make a dancer's tutu for the dress-up center. |
| 1. Measure a child in your class. Measure (A) the child's waist and (B) the distance from waist to just below the knee. |
| 2. Using the hem of the curtain as the hem of the skirt, cut a length of fabric twice the length of (B.) |
| 3. Fold this in half so the top lies on the bottom hem, right sides out. Sew 1-1/2 inches from the fold, making a casing. The casing will be the waist. Leave a 3-inch opening at some point in the casing. You now have two layers of fabric hanging from the casing. |
| 4. Fold this fabric lengthwise with the hemmed fabric on the inside of
the fabric "sandwich." Sewing from bottom to top, make a seam joining the
edges of all four layers of the fabric.
Turn the tutu right side out. Cut a piece of 1-inch elastic the length of (A). Thread the elastic through the opening of the casing. Overlap the ends of the elastic by 1 inch. Sew the elastic together firmly. Sew the casing closed. Hem the inside layer of fabric to prevent it from raveling. |
| Bridal Veil: |
| A length of sheer curtain can be turned into a bridal veil. |
| 1. Cut a rectangle of cloth. |
| 2. Gather it across the center and hold the gathers with a few stitches. |
| 3. Lay a child's headband on top of the gathers. |
| 4. Fold the fabric over the center of the headband. Secure this with a few stitches, or glue it in place with a glue gun. A fabric flower or bow can be glued or stitched on the outside. |
Sheets and Tablecloths
| Secret Spaces: |
| Cover a card table or classroom table with an old sheet or table cloth. Children love to crawl underneath. |
| Use this space to support dramatic play after reading Beady Bear by Don Freeman (published by Viking.) Add a flashlight, a newspaper, and other props, and this becomes Beady's cave. Children enjoy tracing their feet and cutting out footprints to lead to the cave. |
| After reading The Three Pigs by Paul Galdone (published by Houghton Mifflin,) children will use this space as a pig's house. Watch the wolf huff and puff outside the house! Giggles erupt when he blows the house down. |
| This dark, inviting space can be a car, ship, house, or anything else the children imagine. Help children make signs to identify the place. |
When you learn to look at cast-offs with a new "eye," every outing becomes a treasure hunt. You soon discover that some of the best things in life really are free! Happy hunting!
Read In Children's Hands or go back to the article list.