CARDBOARD
BUILDING
BLOCKS
Making Time: 1 hour
Age Group: All ages
Project Designer: Lizzie Hurst
By tracing and cutting LOTS of this simple shape out of cardboard, you can build all kinds of cool structures! Of any size! Then, challenge yourself to build the tallest towers, the most beautiful shapes… or make stories using collaged words and images.
BUT FIRST . . . Follow these steps to cut your own cardboard building block pieces.
Project
Overview:
Don’t try this at home… :)
Prepare
Your Workspace:
Set up your work space. Clear a surface on a table top where you can work. Make sure you have some scrap material covering your surface to keep it clean (magazines, newspaper, cardboard, plastic trash bag...) Make sure to ask other people who are using the space if it’s OK for you to set up there!
Gather Supplies:
Gather Supplies:
NOW LET’S BEGIN
MAKING YOUR BUILDING BLOCKS
Step 1:
Draw or trace a square onto a piece of bendy/thin/cuttable cardboard.
Important: It can be any size, but keep in mind that you’ll trace and cut lots of squares and they all need to be the same size and about the same thickness. Consider how much cardboard you have before cutting!
Step 2:
Trace the cardboard square onto a piece of scrap paper, and cut that out too.
Put the cardboard square aside for later…
Step 3:
Carefully fold the paper in half down the middle in both directions.
Unfold it. Your fold lines will make a + in the middle of the paper.
Step 4:
Then, fold the edges of the paper in to meet the middle line. Then, unfold, rotate, and do this for the other two sides.
Step 5:
When you unfold your paper, you should have fold lines that look like this!
Step 6:
Use your scissors to cut the corner square out of each side of the bigger square to make a big fat + shape!
Step 7:
Grab your cardboard square and hold the paper + sign on top of it so that the edges match up.
Then, trace four little parallel lines along the edges of the paper.
Your final result should look like this!
Step 8:
You will next use scissors to cut little notches into the cardboard square in the places where you drew your lines.
The notches should be only about as thick as the cardboard you are using…
You can eyeball it or you can trace a piece of scrap cardboard to make sure you get your notches just right!
Step 9:
Cut each notch with your scissors.
The final product should look like this!
This will be your
building block stencil!
Step 10:
Trace your stencil onto your scrap cardboard as many times as you can fit it!
Trace your shapes close together and close to the edges of the cardboard so that you waste less material!
LIKE THIS!
NOT like this!
Step 11:
Cut out your pieces. You should have a beautiful stack of identically shaped building blocks.
Step 12:
Try stacking your building blocks! They should fit together in the places where you cut notches! Make adjustments if something isn’t fitting right.
Step 12:
Try building from all sides... What cool shapes and angles can you make?
Good Job!
That’s it! Make as many building blocks as you can and keep on building amazing stuff!
BONUS: If you want to add something a little extra, try collaging words onto your building blocks...
Can you BUILD a funny sentence or a poem? How TALL can it be?
PLEASE SHARE WHAT YOU MADE:
#beamanywhere