Let's make toys with paper cups! Simple and fun handmade toys
Let me introduce some handmade toys using paper cups!
If “store-bought toys get boring quickly” or you “want to do crafting play with your child,” try making toys with easy-to-find paper cups.
We’ve gathered ideas that children of preschool and kindergarten age are sure to love, so have fun!
Paper cups, which we usually use for drinking, can move or even become musical instruments! They’ll surely make kids’ eyes sparkle with interest.
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Let's make toys with paper cups! Simple and fun handmade toys (71–80)
Animal Light
Let’s make a magical light that projects animal shapes! Cut eight evenly spaced slits into the bottom of a paper cup.
Attach plastic wrap over the mouth of the cup and secure it with a rubber band.
Draw your favorite animal on the plastic wrap—and you’re set! Finally, insert a flashlight into the slit side, switch it on, and your animal light will project the animal’s image.
planetarium
You can make a planetarium with a paper cup! Cover the entire outside of the paper cup with black electrical tape.
Then punch holes in the cup in any shapes you like, such as stars, and stick colored cellophane over the holes—done! After that, darken the room and shine a light from inside the paper cup, and a planetarium world will spread across your room!
Whac-A-Mole
Cut the bottom of a paper cup into eight equal sections, and make 1 cm-wide slits along the side.
Next, attach a Yakult bottle to a plastic spoon, and insert it into the slits at the bottom of the paper cup.
This becomes a mole, so make as many as you like.
Then prepare a piece of cardboard covered with construction paper, fix the moles onto it, and add grass and other decorations made from construction paper around them.
Finally, attach a chopstick to a Yakult bottle to make a hammer, and you’re done! Moving the spoon will make the moles pop up!
string telephone
Let’s make a nostalgic string telephone! Prepare two paper cups and make a small hole in the bottom of each.
Thread a piece of twine—as long as possible—through the holes, attach a toothpick as a stopper, and tape it in place to fix it to the bottom of each cup.
And you’re done! Pull the string taut and—like magic—you can use it as a simple telephone!
Picture-matching ring toss
Let’s make a ring toss picture-matching game where the picture is completed by tossing the ring! Make the ring by cutting a hole in a paper plate that’s slightly larger than a paper cup.
Place the paper plate and the paper cup on cardboard covered with construction paper, and draw a picture around them.
Cut eight slits in the rim of the paper cup and attach it to the construction paper.
Finish by drawing the continuation of the picture on the bottom of the cup and on the paper plate.
If you attach a small bell to the back of the paper plate, it will jingle every time you toss the ring—so cute!