Homemade Cardboard Sink and Refrigerator for Preschool Practical Life Learning Centers

Homemade Cardboard Play House Furniture and Appliances: Sink and Refrigerator 

When I was young, my parents made an entire play house for me from recycled cardboard boxes. You can use your recycle bin to make a cardboard house for homeschool or preschool learning center. Here's a tutorial for homemade child sized sink and refrigerator. 

To make these easy cardboard play appliances in less than an hour, you will need cardboard boxes, box cutter or sharp scissors, permanent marker, plastic dishpan or tub, duct tape or box tape and two pump dispensers from soap bottles. 

To make a play sink, tape a cardboard box closed. Cut slits in the box. Insert a small plastic dishpan or tub like hospitals send patients home with. Push tub down into the hole you cut. Cardboard frame will hold the tub in place and create a 'sink'. 

Make faucet, spout and handle for your play sink from two recycled dispenser bottles. Foaming hand soap dispensers look the most realistic. Cut small holes in the back of the box sink. Drop dispenser pieces into the holes so that just the top pump part shows through. Tape inside box so it doesn't wobble. Children can pretend to run water by pressing pump dispenser. 

Or make pretend handles. Make discs of cardboard, clay or cork. Cover with duct tape. Punch hole in center. Insert old pencils or straws. Cut a hole in the back of the cardboard near faucet. Insert straws/pencils and tape to back inside of box. Label "hot" and "cold." Rotate discs like knobs. Place recycled dish soap bottle on sink.

Use a tall rectangle box placed upright for refrigerator. Duct tape pieces of cardboard to make a shelves. Place an old plastic dishpan or plastic box in the bottom for a vegetable drawer. Cover all cardboard surfaces with contact paper and seal edges with duct tape so cardboard appliances last longer. Place small clothing rack near the play kitchen to hang aprons and chefs hats. Dress up is essential in child's play. 

Wood Working Activities for Preschool Learning Centers

Safe, Child Size Wood Working Learning Center for Preschool, Elementary School One of my favorite memories in kindergarten was wood shop. Here are preschool lesson plans to do woodworking in learning centers. When I was a kid, we made wood working projects with scrap wood, hammer and nails. Modern preschool learning centers can't use real tools for wood working activities for safety reasons. But some programs such as High/Scope and Montessori preschool teach children adult tasks using child-sized versions of grownup tools. Here are safe, child-sized wood working and woodshop activities for Montessori preschool learning centers

Many preschool learning centers rely on play tools for woodshop or building activities. Plastic toy tools are fun for children to play with, but they really don't teach anything practical life skills about wood working or tool safety. In fact, kids learn that it's okay to be careless when they play with toy tools because they won't get hurts. Montessori preschool woodshop learning centers educate children about safety. Any child-sized wood working learning stations should include safety glasses, work aprons to cover clothing and gloves to prevent splinters. Children should be required to wear available to wear safety equipment. Any child not behaving safely in woodshop learning centers should be removed and lose privileges.

While it mightn't be practical to use power tools, children can use small hand tools. Kids can practice hammer skill using a tack hammer, heavy plastic hammer or small wooden mallet. You can use wood and nails in learning centers with older children. Montessori preschool learning centers may substitute golf tees and recycled Styrofoam. For child-sized woodshop activities, let students pound golf tees into large pieces of Styrofoam to practice hammering. They can attach small chunks with golf tees to simulate nailing wood pieces together. Use recycled Styrofoam pieces old coolers, surfboards, packing materials, clean vegetable trays even packing peanuts.

Practice carving and cutting skills in child-sized woodshop learning centers using plastic knives and bars of soap. Older children can use child-sized saws or hack saws and pieces of balsa wood or pine. This gives students the idea of sawing wood, without the danger of injury. Children should be taught to be as careful as if they were using full-sized tools. themselves. To practice child-sized drilling activities, provide children with a non-powered hand drill, also called a bit and brace and child-sized vise. Children will love putting pieces of wood or Styrofoam in the vise to hold it secure while they work. They can practice opening and closing vise carefully so as not to pinch fingers. If your preschool learning centers have a child-sized plastic work bench, it will have play vise for children to use.

Good resources for realistic child-sized tools are Handy Andy tool kits. These were completely functional child-sized hand tools, made of realistic metal and wood, that came in a metal or wooden tool kit. Handy Andy tool kits are collectibles. Check the Ebay to buy vintage Handy Andy tool sets. 

Free TI 30, TI-83, TI-84 Online Calculator Download

Free TI 30 Online Scientific Calculator Trial Download

The TI-30 scientific calculator from Texas Instruments is the required calculator for most middle school math classes. TI-83 and Ti-84 are graphing calculators used in high school math classes. These calculators can be pricey. So try the free calculator downloads and graphing calculator apps available here. 

TI-30 scientific calculators have function keys for algebra and algebraic equations, trigonometry, scientific math, decimal to fraction converter, unit converter, complex numbers and RPS.

EEWeb has free online scientific calculator tools for laptop and desktop computer software.

Texas Instruments website  has free downloads for their products also. The online TI-30 scientific calculator software can be purchased for $14.95. The advantage in using online scientific calculators is that handheld are easier to lose or get stolen. 

Google Play has free graphing calculator apps for Android users. iTunes has free TI 30 apps as well. If you can find a good freebie, I suggest buying an app for the iPhone or Android. This turns makes the device into a calculator and means one less tool to lose.