Cardboard Summer

The cardboard exploration started with a gift. In our program, we receive tremendous support from parents and community members to maintain a stock of recycled materials. At the beginning of Summer Camp, someone donated several large refrigerator boxes, so we added them to our collection of recycled materials.

Connecting with parents and community members is vital to a program's success. Gathering support for the program's needs enables us as educators to practice our vision of learning with the children and creates pathways to share and collaborate with the community.

The collection of boxes did not fit into our classroom space, so we stored them in a covered outdoor area. Then we waited for the children to inquire about using them for their work.

Intrigued by the size and potential of the boxes, it did not take long for several children to inquire about them. The children wanted to know where the boxes came from and what we had planned for them? Were the boxes part of a unique project, or could they use them to create?

Our program encourages the children to think about how they want to use or explore each material. After a short chat about their ideas for the large boxes, the children started work.

Several groups of children came together and decided to create forts, clubhouses, and homes out of the large boxes. The children formed collaborations to work with the materials so many children could enjoy the experience.

The work began. The children placed considerable energy and time into the initial design and construction. Children used packaging tape to hold the buildings together, which created a challenge for the educators. All at once, we needed to buy a large amount of packing tape, so the children to enjoy their work uninterrupted.

Seeing the box forts coming together, other children become inspired to work on the same exploration. To accommodate the new participants required educators to scramble to get enough boxes and tape so the work could continue.

The children continued to use their free time to work on the cardboard homes. After building the initial structures, the children added accessories to the interiors of their homes. Many children brought in unique items to decorate the inside of their homes. Some groups added personal style to their homes by painting the inside and outside surfaces.

The children used their cardboard structures daily to play and hang out with friends. They would bring toys and other materials into the structures to play with. I often discovered children drawing, painting, reading, and listening to music with friends inside their cardboard homes. The children enjoyed the independence of having a space of their own and making choices away from the larger group of children.

Work on summer cardboard homes continued, and the houses became bigger. Some groups of children decided to combine their houses to create cardboard mansions. A few children acquired new boxes, brought them into the program, and attached them to their existing structures. Cardboard homes now covered the entire outdoor patio.

The summer moved forward. The children spent each day of their vacation playing in the cardboard structures. I wondered if they would get bored or when they would finish this project and want to move ahead to some other work. It never happened. In summer, we have camp. During camp, children take part in projects at the school. We also leave the facility to go on field trips several times a week. Our field trip days left the children excited and appreciative to have space where they could chill and relax back in the program space. They looked forward to coming back to their cardboard homes.

Our summer camp lasts eleven weeks. The children who started the cardboard village kept it going for the duration of our time together. Near the end of the summer, we invited the children to take their cardboard structures home. If this was not an option, we decided to re-use as much of the cardboard as possible. We cut the cardboard into smaller sections and recycled the rest.

Most projects have a natural beginning and ending point. When a project ends or begins is an agreement between the children and educators. Usually, both groups realize when to start a new exploration, but this did not happen with the cardboard homes. After talking, we decided that the end of summer would be the time to end this work.

The children relived memories of the construction as we deconstructed the cardboard village. They shared stories about time spent with friends in the space. Many of the children asked if we could create a village again. "Of course, we can," I said, "give it a little time." We cleared away the last piece of cardboard, and the outside patio returned to its original form. We moved on to other projects.

Cardboard and its many uses will still be in our future. New homes and other creations will develop from this magical material filled with potential and possibilities for the entire learning community.