Kids just love playing with cardboard boxes and pretending.
For the past couple of years as my profile photograph in the top right hand corner of this blog I've used a pic of Edward sitting in a cardboard box. Drawn on the outside is a Big Red Car.
Nowadays Edward is quite interested in submarines, so I thought I would make one for him.
Here's how to make a cardboard submarine.
I used a large cardboard carton which enclosed a table we recently bought. I slit the carton along one length and folded it to create a flat base. I drew the rough outline of a cigar shaped submarine with conning tower on the parts of the cardboard sheet which would become the sides of the vessel. Then cut it out using a small pruning saw. This is the best tool for cutting through thick cardboard.
Then I folded the sides upwards and secured them with tape across the top and around the nose area. The back of the submarine was left open to give children easy access to the inside.
A piece of excess carboard was rolled up to make a tube about 10cm in diameter for the periscope. In turn, the periscope was also taped in place.
Finally came painting. As you can see, the classical cigar shape was emphasised with a black outline. The writing is in red colour because that's Ed's favourite colour. The green, red and yellow splotches are just to create some visual interest and break up the solid surface so it looks a bit less like a cardboard box from the outside.
The submarine was designated number B5 because it will be Ed's fifth birthday.
H.M.A.S. was used because Edward understands they are the prefixes for all Australian Navy ships and submarines.
And "Edward" - well all kids love seeing their names written on things.
As well as playing with boxes, kids also like making tunnels out of things, so by leaving the back of the submarine open and having the ceiling of the conning tower arching over the top a bit of a tunnel feel is created too.
A finishing touch is a tin foil cake pan at the top of the periscope to represent the lens.
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