Easy DIY Cardboard Toys For Toddlers

Sometimes the most fun toys are the ones made from the contents of a recycling bin! Some of my toddler’s favorite play activities involve homemade toys made out of scrap cardboard.

In this post, I’ll be sharing our go-to DIY cardboard toys for toddlers!

1. Toy Car Ramps and Jumps
2. Parking Garages
3. Ball Hoops
4. Forts

4 Easy DIY Cardboard Toys For Toddlers To Make At Home

1. Car Ramps and Jumps

DIY ramps, jumps and parking garages made from recycled cardboard boxes are a big hit with my toddler!

A ramp can be as simple as breaking off the side of a big cardboard box and leaning it against your coffee table. Zero craft supplies needed.

You can also let your child decorate the cardboard ramp. Pull out some markers and let them go wild!

You can also use cardboard tubes and attach them to jumps or halfpipes made from cardboard boxes.

To make a jump/halfpipe, take an empty box and remove the top flaps.

Cut out a shallow c shape on one side of the box.

Then take the shape that was cut out, and use it to trace the same shape on the opposite side of the box that was just cut. This gives you a symmetrical u-shape.

Cut out that second u-shape.

Next, use an extra thick piece of paper or cereal box to form the curved halfpipe base. Attach a mailing cardboard tube to the edge of the jump and lean the top of the tube against the wall.

My toddler loves driving hot wheel cars down the tube or dropping balls down it and watching them fly off the ramp!

Toys to Slide Down Ramps

• Toy race cars
• Balls (golf ball, wooden ball, squish ball, plastic ball, cloth ball)
• Pom-poms
• Water bottles (full and empty ones)

Benefits of Toy Ramp Play

• Learning about gravity
  

  Offer your toddler objects of different weights, shapes, and sizes to let them explore the concept of gravity.

• Learning about momentum and distance
  

  Show your toddler how different angles of a ramp impact an object’s speed and travel distance. You can also set a bowl out in front of a ramp/jump so your toddler can try and get a car or ball to land in the bowl. My toddler also likes to stack blocks in front of the jump to try and knock them all down with a flying car. 

• Pure fun
  This ramp/jump has provided hours and hours of fun and creative learning for my toddler!

2. Parking Garages

We have also recently built a parking garage for all of my toddler’s Hot Wheels cars.

I found an old shoe box and cut up some pasta boxes to tape inside it. He puts his cars in here every night before bed.

You can also use toilet paper rolls in place of cut-up pasta boxes to house little cars or other precious small toys. 

Ball Hoops Made From Scrap Cardboard

Making a cardboard “basketball hoop” is a simple and effective way to get energetic toddlers running, jumping, and twisting!

And all you need is a strip of scrap cardboard and some painter’s tape. And of course, some toy balls to throw!

I wrap the edges of the strip of cardboard I’m using for the hoop with painter’s tape to prevent any paper cuts during play. Other than that, we just stick the hoop to the wall with a piece of painter’s tape and my toddler has so much fun playing his own version of basketball. 

Benefits of DIY Ball Hoops

• Hand eye coordination skills
• Depth perception skills
• Fine and gross motor skills.
  – Jumping, running, twisting and grasping.
• Cooperative play
  – Taking turns and sharing
• Burning lots of wild toddler energy!

4. Forts, Tunnels, and Pirate Ships

To make some spectacular forts and tunnels for your toddler, you’ll need some large cardboard boxes! 

My toddler likes to use furniture and blankets for his forts, but when we don’t have enough furniture around, empty cardboard boxes make some great fort walls. 

A big cardboard box can also become a fort or tunnel in and of itself. You can cut out windows or connect big cardboard boxes to make tunnels or a castle! 

Benefits of DIY Fort Play

• Encourages imaginative pretend play
• Develops sequencing skills (planning and step-by-step building skills)

Developmental Benefits Of DIY Cardboard Toys For Toddlers

Aside from costing nothing, cardboard toys have many other benefits! When it comes to early childhood development, building homemade toys and figuring out versatile ways to play with them helps kids develop many important skills;

• Creative thinking skills
• Problem-solving skills
• Self-confidence
• Gross and fine motor skills
• Sequencing skills (planning and step-by-step actions)

Problem-Solving Skills

Figuring out how to assemble cardboard toys requires important problem-solving skills. For example, when a piece of tape folds in on itself as little ones apply it to a piece of cardboard, they figure out how to keep it flat the next time. Or when they can not get a rubbery object to slide down their ramp, they figure out what kind of object will slide down.

Confidence

Transforming empty cardboard boxes into fun toys gives our little ones a sense of creative power. This contributes to their developing self-esteem and self-confidence.

Flexible Thinking

Versatile toys allow toddlers to explore using toys in many different ways and encourage flexible thinking. An important skill when kids are learning to engage in Independent Play.

Fine and Gross Motor Skills

While cutting cardboard is best left to the adults, toddlers can exercise their motor skills by helping gather cardboard boxes, managing tools, and applying tape.

Kids can also go wild decorating their cardboard toys with paint, markers, pompoms, and colorful tissue paper.

Sequencing

Sequencing is all about learning to do things in a step-by-step order. Learning Without Tears explains that sequencing is a foundational skill that helps young children “learn to recognize patterns that make their world more understandable and predictable”.

Without basic sequencing skills, we would not be able to follow instructions or complete routine tasks.

In addition to helping build important skills and providing hours of fun, DIY toddler toys can simply be put back in the recycle bin at the end of the day!

For another DIY toddler activity to build fine motor skills and sequencing skills, try making your own DIY Playdough or Homemade Kinetic Sand!

Say hi in the comments and let me know about your toddler’s favorite DIY cardboard toys!