I've just recently moved house and had lots and lots of cardboard boxes left over from the move. I wanted to put them to good use and knew that the quantity could provide a lot of inspiration for the children at the Shop. So one Saturday myself, Laura Carle and a couple of our Playwork Assistants rejigged the space a little to make more room, got out all the boxes and stacked them in a messy pile ready for when the children arrived.
There were mixed reactions on arrival, from 'what's happened to the Shop?' to 'why are there so many boxes here?' to 'can we use them?' (with a slightly excited smile on their face) Straight away the children set out on their own cardboard creations. A rocket that you could fit in, a pet shop and a castle:
The castle quickly became a point of focus for the children as they played around with putting different pieces of furniture inside and tested out how many of them would fit in there at once. They then chose where window and doors would go and how they could get the whole thing to stay up!
The cardboard castle has remained fairly in tact for most of the week, and has seen an extension in that time too:
Things from previous workshops were also appropriated, such as Helen Rousseau and Rachel Russell's 'Dark Matter' sign which feels strangely appropriate in it's new context!
Cardboard is such a simple and accessible material to work with, it's pretty instant in it's play value, in that you don't need to spend too long making before you can start playing. It's also just as much fun to destroy it after you've finished with whatever structure you've created!
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