If you have an abundant supply of toilet paper rolls, why not let your kids have fun with them until they are needed? I’ve put together a fun list of things your kids can do with toilet paper rolls that will get them thinking creatively and keep them busy.
Toilet Paper Roll Building Challenges
Since STEM activities are my go-to boredom busters, why not try these challenges?
You probably knew this one was coming. Build a toilet paper tower! How high can you make it in just 60 seconds? The fun doesn’t have to stop there. Make it more interesting or challenging by trying something like an arch, a staircase, or a tower with only ONE roll as the base (you might need two or more people to get this one to work!):
Once the TP tower is built, test its strength by designing and creating something to knock it down! Maybe you will create a slingshot or a catapult, or something more complicated like a trebuchet.
One of my favorite set of books for kids who like this type of activity is the Mini Weapons of Mass Destruction series (this is an affiliate link, read our disclosure here):
Make Something Useful?
Why not take this opportunity to try and design a better toilet paper roll, storage system, or way to keep the toilet paper protected from inevitable sneezes in the bathroom?
A Toilet Paper Roll Adventure
Imagine the toilet paper roll is Frosty the Snowman and he’d like to go sledding. Design and create a sled for the toilet paper roll to make it down a flight of stairs without flying off the sled!
Get Nerdy with Science and Math
When I taught a Grossology class, this was a favorite activity of my students! If you have multiple kinds of toilet paper, even better. You’ll need a dropper or some way to measure liquid (a measuring cup is okay if that’s all you have). See how much liquid ONE SQUARE of toilet paper can hold before becoming saturated. Go for the full effect – use yellow food dye on your water.
Take it one step further – once the toilet paper is saturated, how much solid mass can it hold before it fails? I like using metal washers for this but pennies work well too.
Want some more guidance on how to do this? Lemon Lime Adventures has a nice write up with useful visuals.
More Science with Toilet Paper
For another fun toilet paper science demo check out Steve Spangler’s Flying Toilet Paper.
Toilet Paper Math
No, I’m not going to suggest you wrap your brain about single, double, or triple rolls, with one, two, or triple ply squares. No one needs that madness! However, you can absolutely do some simple math activities with a TP roll as your starting point.
In addition to the ideas above, once the volume of a TP roll is calculated, find out how many rolls would fit in the room you’re in.
Measure the height of a roll calculate how far away the moon is in toilet paper rolls. If you can do with unraveling one, then compare that number to an unrolled roll of TP to see how many you would need to reach the moon.
Cardboard Tube STEM Activities
Once the TP rolls are all used up, the fun has just begun! There are a number of other activities waiting for you! I created this resource of STEM activities you can do with the cardboard tube that’s left when the TP is all gone.
Here’s a quick preview of some of the activities included (exploring cross sections, marble run, symmetry art, ball floating with Bernoulli’s principle, and cardboard tube structures:
Pin these ideas for later:
Leave a Reply
Your email is safe with us.