Wait! Don’t throw away that toilet paper tube! Save those tubes from the trash can and repurpose them into a great toy, no DIY crafting necessary. You can find a list of general play strategies here to help you discover what level of play your child is currently enjoying. Included in italics are a variety of words and sentence ideas to use while playing.
Simple:
Roll the tubes across the table, down a ramp (overturned books, puzzles, and baking sheets all make great ramps), or back and forth. (It’s rolling. It went down. We’re pushing it.)
Play a game of peek-a-boo while looking through the tube. (You’re under the blanket. You’re hiding. I found you!)
Stand a tube up on top of your head and let your child knock it down. (It fell down.)
Combination:
Set up an array of tubes and encourage your child to knock them over bowling-style with a ball. (Ball. The ball is rolling. It crashed. The tubes fell down.)
If you have some yarn or other long string, you can thread the tubes like beads onto the string. (String. We’re pulling the string.)
Stack the tubes into a pyramid and have fun crashing them over. (A tower. The tower came down.)
Early Symbolic:
Tubes can serve as either tunnels or garages for small cars. (It’s a garage. The car is inside. It’s parked. It’s a tunnel. The car drove through the tunnel.)
Pretend to drink from the tubes like cups. (I poured the juice. We’re drinking.)
Advanced Play:
Pretend that the tubes are houses for little people or animals. You can cut out doors and make a little neighborhood of houses.
Pretend that the tubes are rockets and have fun blasting them off into outer space.
