Toddler activities with cardboard tubes
6 activities in the library use cardboard tubes, for toddlers aged 12 to 36 months: 2 starting 12–17 months, 1 starting 18–23 months and 3 starting from 24 months. Empty toilet-paper and paper-towel tubes become tunnels for balls, telescopes for spying, ramps taped to a wall and pins to knock down. They cost nothing and can be thrown away when worn.
Updated
Cardboard tubes: 6 activities to try
Safety: Throw away tubes that get soggy or chewed, since wet cardboard can be bitten into pieces.
6 activities
- Scarf in a Tube Pull 12–18 months · 3–8 min · Indoors · Calm Your child pulls a scarf out of a cardboard tube, then watches it vanish when you feed it back in: a simple, repeatable lesson in cause and effect.
- Tube Talk Echo Sounds 12–20 months · 3–6 min · Indoors or out · Calm You hum, sing and make animal sounds through a cardboard tube, then pause; your child answers with a sound of their own, and you echo it back.
- Kick Over the Tube Pins 20–36 months · 5–12 min · Indoors or out · Active Your child kicks a soft ball at a row of cardboard tubes standing up like bowling pins, practising aimed kicks and counting how many fall.
- Teddy's Doctor Check-Up 24–34 months · 8–15 min · Indoors · Calm Your child plays doctor for a stuffed animal, listening through a cardboard tube, checking ears and wrapping a sore paw, a pretend routine for talking about checkups.
- Tube and Block City 26–36 months · 10–20 min · Indoors · Calm Your child builds a small city with blocks, standing cardboard tubes and an open box, then drives a car between the towers and under the bridges.
- Tube Garden Copycat 26–36 months · 5–12 min · Indoors · Calm You stand cardboard tubes in a few cups of an egg carton and your child copies your pattern on their own carton, matching where each tube goes.
Nothing matches these filters. Try another age band or "Anywhere".
Cardboard Tubes at a glance
| Activities | 6, 1 on the low-prep menu |
|---|---|
| Ages covered (corrected) | 12–36 months |
| Focus time | 3–20 minutes |
| Main domains | 3 creativity & pretend, 2 cognitive and 1 gross motor |
| Where they happen | 4 indoors and 2 indoors or outdoors |
| Quickest start | Tube Talk Echo Sounds, 3–6 minutes |
Every activity with cardboard tubes
Sorted by the first month each one fits (corrected age for children born early). Quick picks: for a calm moment, Scarf in a Tube Pull; to burn energy, Kick Over the Tube Pins; with no prep at all, Tube Talk Echo Sounds.
| Activity | Ages | Minutes | Domain | Prep |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Scarf in a Tube Pull | 12–18 months | 3–8 | Cognitive | 2 min |
| Tube Talk Echo Sounds | 12–20 months | 3–6 | Creativity & pretend | None |
| Kick Over the Tube Pins | 20–36 months | 5–12 | Gross motor | 2 min |
| Teddy's Doctor Check-Up | 24–34 months | 8–15 | Creativity & pretend | 2 min |
| Tube and Block City | 26–36 months | 10–20 | Creativity & pretend | 5 min |
| Tube Garden Copycat | 26–36 months | 5–12 | Cognitive | 5 min |
How each activity uses cardboard tubes
- Scarf in a Tube Pull (cause and effect, 3–8 minutes): Push a scarf into a cardboard tube, leaving one corner poking out of the end.
- Tube Talk Echo Sounds (making music, 3–6 minutes): Hold the tube to your mouth and make one long, funny sound: "Ooooo."
- Kick Over the Tube Pins (kicking a ball, 5–12 minutes): Stand the tubes in a row on a hard floor or flat path.
- Teddy's Doctor Check-Up (pretend sequences, 8–15 minutes): Listen to teddy's tummy through the tube: "Thump, thump. I hear the heart."
- Tube and Block City (building and constructing, 10–20 minutes): Stand two tubes up and lay a block across them: "A bridge!"
- Tube Garden Copycat (imitating actions, 5–12 minutes): Stand one tube in a corner cup of your carton: 'One tube, in the corner.'.
By age
12–17 months: 2 activities, 3–8 minutes. 18–23 months: 1 activity, 5–12 minutes. From 24 months: 3 activities, 5–20 minutes.
Starting 12–17 months
Starting 18–23 months
Starting from 24 months
Words that come up
Across these activities you will model “pull”, “out”, “in”, “where did it go?”, “ooo”, “moo”, “hello”, “your turn”, “kick”, “fall down”, “one, two” and “stand up”. Say one at the moment it happens, then pause for your child's turn.
Safety with cardboard tubes
- Throw away tubes that get soggy or chewed, since wet cardboard can be bitten into pieces.
- Use the tube as your choke-size check: anything that fits through it is too small for play.
Prep tips
- Tape a few tubes to a wall or door at a slant to make a ball run.
- Stand them upright on a hard floor as pins for rolling or kicking games.
No cardboard tubes? Use instead
- Rolled and taped sheets of paper.
- Plastic cups stacked as pins.
- A paper-towel roll still holding some paper.
Combine it with
Cardboard tubes are most often paired with blocks (1 activity), cardboard box (1 activity) and egg carton (1 activity). The skills practised most: cause and effect (2), imitating actions (2) and spatial words (2).
Often combined with
Skills practised
Frequently asked questions
What can a toddler do with cardboard tubes?
6 activities here use them, for example Scarf in a Tube Pull (12–18 months), Tube Talk Echo Sounds (12–20 months) and Kick Over the Tube Pins (20–36 months). One is on the low-prep menu: no prep and 10 minutes or less.
Are cardboard tubes safe for toddlers?
Use them only with an adult close by. Throw away tubes that get soggy or chewed, since wet cardboard can be bitten into pieces. Use the tube as your choke-size check: anything that fits through it is too small for play.
What can I use instead of cardboard tubes?
Rolled and taped sheets of paper, plastic cups stacked as pins or a paper-towel roll still holding some paper can stand in for most of these activities.
What ages are activities with cardboard tubes for?
They cover 12–36 months of corrected age: 2 starting 12–17 months, 1 starting 18–23 months and 3 starting from 24 months.
Related
Monitoring, not medical advice. Talk to your pediatrician about any concern. Our sources and method.