The Cardboard Chronicles

Hello. Hello.

It's me Between a at Will and welcome to the

cardboard chronicles.

Here's a little story.

When I was first traveling around in my early twenties,

I was in Barcelona.

I was walking down the Las Ramblas and I had

this uh feeling of utter joy, this feeling of feeling

whole. I just got off the metro and I was

about to meet some friends.

I was walking towards the beach and into the sunset

and I knew what I wanted to do.

I knew I wanted to be in the education industry

and I just wanted to teach what made me inspired.

I wanted to teach things that mattered to me.

And one of these things is cardboard.

I love cardboard.

I think cardboard so versatile.

I think cardboard is so accessible that we can do

almost anything and everything with cardboard.

So welcome everyone to the cardboard chronicles.

First I'm gonna show you a quick presentation of an

overview of what I've done with cardboard and how have

utilized it to integrate different learning domains.

And then I'm going to get on the D.

N. Y.

Table and show you what we can do.

Okay, so why should we even choose cardboard?

Well, cardboard is seen here as a resource.

Recent number one, cardboard is versatile and accessible.

We can make larger than life structures and also small

world place structures, cardboard is as common single use package.

So almost anything and everything we buy these days come

in some sort of package.

It's either plastic or cardboard and it comes in all

shapes, sizes and thickness.

The reason why like cardboard over plastic is because the

material allows the Children to stick to glue.

It's way safer to use around Children than it is

to use plastic.

Recent number Two cardboard as a resource can be a

medium Children can extend their learning with, for example, when

one is learning about emotions, you can use cardboard instead

of laminating pictures to visually allow Children to hold the

picture and it's strong.

So cardboard can really help you, help you be able

to visualize or help you to be able to bring

more visual cues into your home or into your practice.

And Children can easily manipulate cardboard.

Using cardboard can be environmentally sustainable because cardboard is so

lightweight and it allows Children to use their gross motor

skills to be able to move it around their fine

motor skills if they are making small good arts and

crafts, but it can be manipulated by Children and it

will allow Children and give Children opportunity to use those

motor skills in a very fun child lead way.

So rest assured.

When you've got cardboard, you've got Children and imagination, then

you've got play.

So those are just some simple reasons why we can

use cardboard or why we should even utilize more cardboard.

So let's take a look at some tips for collecting

cardboard. I have had the worst experiences with people.

I myself am not too fussy with the way I

collect my cardboard, but I realized, you know, no man

is an island and it can get really hard and

disorganized. If we're not organized about collecting our cardboard, sometimes

you can get so carried away.

Believe it.

I was one of those people who sometimes does get

carried away or I still do when you see so

many nice, beautiful cardboard and your mind starts sticking with

your imagination on what that cardboard can be.

So I've narrowed it down to a system.

First of all, we need to be intentional.

When you see cardboard or when you want to collect

cardboard, we don't just collect any cardboard, but then we

collect something that we know we're going to use.

So if it is a big piece of cardboard that

you want to collect your collecting it, because you know,

the Children will want to probably go in and out

of it.

You've observed Children role playing and you want to extend

on that and make them a house or make them

a living room, the cardboard that's all up to you,

but you have to have an intention behind the collection.

Now, you also need to have a space for your

cardboard somewhere when you're in the collecting face before we

start doing it and making something out of it, you

want to have like a substantial collection of cardboard, so

have a space for it.

Maybe you can put a box within a box, within

a box.

Later, I will show you what I mean.

And then lastly, only collect what you need.

If it is what if it's cereal boxes that you

need, the thin cardboard that you need, then only collect

those cereal boxes and put them in a container top

and make it organized.

So you really want to be intentional about where you

store your cardboard.

You're not seeing this a Strache, but you're seeing this

as a resource that will be able to extend on

your Children's play and learning.

Now, I've seen a lot of Children and I myself

have experienced that sometimes working with cardboard and sticking things

together can be very challenging.

In fact, I have seen a lot of and I

have experienced using rolls and rolls of sticky tape, and

that's when cardboard isn't sustainable anymore.

When we cover it up with plastic, sticky tape, or

we cover it up with plastic and we mix the

mediums together.

So what I really, really think is that we can

use cardboard in its rawest form, we can paint on

it, we can draw on it because it can still

be recycled.

But then mixing in plastic for me isn't really really

the most feasible.

So I've come up with different ways from researching and

from practicing of how we can put things together when

we're making structures with our Children or we want to

make some role play roleplay props.

We can make our own, we can fasten our own

ways. So here's a few ways of how we can

put cardboard together.

We can either wrap so use a piece of string

and rapid wrapped two pieces together to join them.

And this is a really great introduction to use a

string and connection.

If your child's in the connection scheme, A this is

a great skill that you can scaffold or depends on

what you're making.

If your if your Children are into making things that

move that role, you can use brass fasteners or even

cardboard screws.

Yeah. When you're making structures and you want to put

them together, you can do slots where you cut where

you have two pieces of cardboard and you cut one

and only 21 tip only halfway and other the other

cardboard only halfway as well.

And you joined them together by inserting the two pieces

together. Or you can do this thing called flinch.

If you're working with cylinders are with round round objects

around cardboard, you can cut the very tip into slits

and then and then press it down into your paper

and then paste it.

So this is a great way to make it nice

and strong.

So cardboard can literally be used for anything and everything.

I really love the way it can intertwine and integrate

into so many ways of playing.

For example when we role play we use cardboard when

we want to understand math concepts, cardboard is such a

great resource.

More than all of those plastic counters that we can

buy cardboard is a way to go print awareness.

Cardboard is a great way instead of laminating to make

things stronger to make your visual cue stronger.

It's amazing when it comes to art, cardboard is a

blank canvas.

When it comes to integrating the sciences, technology, Engineering, Arts

and the maths, cardboard is actually the best and most

basic resource that you can use to integrate these different

learning domains with.

For example with art, cardboard can be nothing but playing

black canvas.

It's huge.

Nature makes it perfect for Children to be able to

express themselves and use all those motor skills.

And also it's free.

So you can always, when Children are finished with it,

you don't, it doesn't have to cost you an arm

and a leg to be able to provide these holistic

opportunities. And you can really be as creative or as

resourceful as you want.

You can use pizza boxes for art and it's just

an open ended resource.

That's all I can say when it comes to art

and even when it comes to curating art, you can

make frames out of cardboard.

So this is a really, really great way to show

how you appreciate your Children and their journey into their

artistic lives and frames and curating their art is actually

a really, really important component when it comes to allowing

Children to express themselves artistically.

You can cut out cereal boxes and cut out small

cardboard and you can segregate them and classify them according

to their color and just make it a provocation for

Children who want to do some sort of collage or

art and craft.

You can also use cardboard and role play.

We never bought a kitchen or we never bought a

little like role play for for for Children when it

comes to cooking, because cardboard is so easy and the

thing is Children lose interest every so often.

So it's also a really great way to be able

to dispose of it when we're finished because it's all

recyclable. So you can go as basic as you can,

which is a simple box and Children love that simple

box. The magic ingredient here is imagination that comes from

the Children.

Here is just as simple nappy box.

We turned into a kitchen when it comes to literacy.

You can, as I mentioned, use cardboard to make it

strong. Make your visual cues strong.

Can use cardboard to make your to make books, especially

when it comes to allowing Children to create their own

stories, create their own books.

So you can really use cardboard as that specific material

to make those special queues last longer and to be

able to be stronger because the most important thing here

is repetition.

We want to repeat things are Children and cardboard is

a great, strong, versatile material.

You can use a stick instead of laminating.

It's a really great sustainable option.

As opposed to laminating, you can even use big giant

cardboard as a way for you to post things up

temporarily. That comes to New Mercy.

I think that when it comes to allowing Children to

explore that whole concept of physics, especially velocity and speed,

cardboard is the way to go.

It's so light, it's so versatile and Children can build

on it and build on it and build on it

and it's just amazing what they can do or what

simple things they can do with simple joys they can

get from all of this.

And because cardboard comes in different shapes and different sizes

and thickness, you can have thick and thin and caught

cardboard up in shapes and have them in these little

colours cast if I them as colors.

And this was a really, really great go to resource.

We had that we used over and over again for

many years.

You do it once but you can use it again

and again in so many ways.

And the great thing of with cardboard is that you're

giving something a second life and not just the second

life, but you can always give it a 3rd.

4th, 5th and Ethics life.

It can stay with you for so long and give

you so many uses.

So you don't really need as much cardboard as you

think you do, but just be intentional with what you're

using it for.

So with.

The Cardboard Chronicles

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