A Pretend Zoo Made From a Cardboard Box

Is your house a zoo? I mean, does your house need a zoo? My two kids (1.5 & 3.5) both love zoos and making things, so I was confident they would love making a pretend zoo. It was so simple and fun to make and it is also simple and fun to play with. And even better than that? It keeps some of my kids’ stuffed animals off the floor. A craft that is easy, fun, and useful? Do I need to continue or do you just want to get started?

How to Make a Cardboard Box Zoo

Materials:

• Cardboard box
• Scissors
• Hole punch
• Paint (optional)
• Yarn
• Construction paper, glue stick, and packing tape (optional)

Prepping the Box:

First, we prepped our box, so it could become a zoo. Before getting the kids involved, I cut off all four of the top flaps from a box I had laying around using scissors. One of the super fun things about this craft is you can use any box. Make a giant refrigerator box that your kids fit in, a small card box that stickers fit in, or anything in between. I chose a medium sized box to fit some of my kids’ stuffed animals. Then, I used a hole punch to make a hole every 1 1/2 inches on both the top and the bottom of the front.

Next, I let all chaos loose. In other words, I gave a preschooler and a toddler paint and brushes and let them paint the box. This step was unnecessary, but I wanted to get both kids involved and they both love paint. To help protect my house as much as possible, we painted outside on a plastic tablecloth. I put both kids in paint clothes and kept a very careful eye on both of them.

Once my kids painted the whole box, we left it outside to dry while we went in and washed hands…and feet…and ears.

Making the Pretend Zoo:

I let my older daughter do the next few steps while my son took a nap. To start, I wrapped a piece of tape around a piece of yarn and showed my preschooler daughter how to lace it through the box. I was very impressed at how she immediately picked up the pattern. I threaded it down through a hole, across the bottom to the next hole, and up through the next hole. Once she finished lacing through all the holes, I cut the yarn and tied both ends to their respective holes.

At this point we could have called it done. But, my daughter has been very interested in letters lately, so I wanted to give it a zoo sign. I cut out a Z, O, and O from construction paper and let her glue it on the top using a glue stick. When my son got up from his nap he immediately tore off one of the letters. So, we had to protect it with packing tape.

Conclusion of Our Pretend Zoo for Stuffed Animals

This was a big hit. Both kids loved painting it. My daughter loved lacing the yarn to make bars. And they both can play with it. My daughter immediately stuffed as many stuffed animals in it as she could. She even claimed that her lovey named Lumpy was going to sleep in there during her nap. She quickly changed her mind on that, but several of the animals that she normally naps with did stay in the zoo.

The yarn works well since my kids can move it to fit even big stuffed animals. I showed my daughter how to separate them to make a hole before shoving her animals in. My son doesn’t like it quite as much, but it does intrigue him. He struggles to get animals in and out, but with enough time or his sister’s help he can do it.

If you have more cardboard you want to use up, you can replace the stuffed animals with cardboard animals like these from Red Ted Art. What size pretend zoo do you plan on making?