Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Building With Paper Cups


I started the older kids stapling together small, Dixie cup size, paper cups, into a dome, following instructions for a building project from Steven Caney's excellent, Ultimate Building Book. The book is not the most exciting, but it's jammed full of wonderful building projects for children, and teens.

The younger children wanted in on the project too, but the stapler took more hand strength than they had to offer, so they kept busy stacking the cups...


...and attaching some together with clothes pins, and tape.



And, when the older children took a break from constructing the dome, they took it for themselves. Caney suggests using it as a bird watering station in the yard, but the younger children thought it made a good bug...


...or satellite communication device for a rocket...


...or just a hat.


Either way, I was impressed with the boredom buster mileage from an inexpensive package of generic paper cups.

It's great to be a homeschooler.

8 comments:

Christy Killoran said...

I LOVE that last photo!

That is a great project.

Phyllis said...

Cute!

Ticia said...

That is a good boredom buster

Natalie PlanetSmarty said...

It sounds like a fantastic book, especially with proper number of builders :) Love the imagination of your youngest!

Debbie said...

What a great boredom buster, it even gave our evening a little more smiles and laughs. Love the hat!

Joyful Learner said...

I wonder if you can make a dome or a sphere with them. Love all the creative ideas!

Beloved's Redheaded Bride said...

Have you done any more projects from this book? I was wondering what other building things are in it. I was thinking of buying it for my child who is always wanting to build but didn't want to spend the money if it wasn't more useful.

Thanks.

An Almost Unschooling Mom said...

Beloved's Bride - It has all kinds of terrific building ideas, and instructions, but I think I wouldn't buy it for anyone under 8.