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Toilet Paper Tube Octopus

August 26, 2011 by OneMommy

Preschoolers love crafts.   They love them even more when the craft becomes something to play with afterwards.

This is one reason when it comes to kids crafts we especially love cardboard tube crafts.  Not only are they fun and cheap, but you can create so many fun characters to play with using those tubes.

This toilet paper tube octopus is a fun preschooler craft for summer or to pair with a unit on sea animals.

preschooler toilet paper roll octopus craft

Cardboard Tube Octopus Craft

Materials Needed:

  • Empty Toilet Paper Roll (or cardboard tube cut to the same size)
  • Scissors
  • Markers/Crayons
  • Glue/Clear Tape

To help guide your preschooler, draw 8 vertical lines going about 2/3 of the way up the cardboard tube.  Have your child use scissors to cut on the lines.

preschooler octopus craft

Use markers or crayons to color the legs and body of the octopus.  We found that marker showed up better than crayon.

You could also use paint, but then you will need to wait for it to dry before you can finish the craft.

To keep the mess to a minimum have your child color on a scrap piece of paper.

cardboard tube octopus

Have your child draw a face on the octopus.  We added circles as suction cups to the bottom of all 8 legs, too.

cardboard tube octopus craft

The next step is purely optional.  I cut a circle out, slightly larger than the circumference of the toilet paper roll.  I cut a few slits in the circle of paper and then slipped it inside the octopus’ head area, securing it with tape.  This made a top of the octopus for my daughter to add curly ribbon hair.  (She wanted a girl octopus, and she insisted it needed hair.)

preschooler octopus craftpreschooler octopus craft

 

She was happy with her cardboard tube octopus.  I think the ribbon hair looks much better than my original colored paper hair!

As a bonus, when she finished her sea animal craft she had a new little friend to play with.

toilet paper roll octopus

You may also like:

  • 25 Recycled Crafts for Kids 
  • DIY Shark Party Games for Kids
  • Simple Paper Squid Craft
  • Colorful Water Bottle Fish 

Filed Under: Kids Crafts Tagged With: cardboard tube craft, preschooler craft, recycled craft, sea animal craft

Comments

  1. Claudia says

    August 26, 2011 at 4:03 pm

    Too cute! We so need to try this in my house – with the amount of toilet paper we seem to go through we have tons of materials to get started with 🙂

    • admin says

      August 28, 2011 at 10:28 am

      That’s the great thing about toilet paper tube crafts – you never run out of supplies!

  2. Rach says

    August 26, 2011 at 5:28 pm

    Fun!

  3. Tiffany says

    August 26, 2011 at 7:06 pm

    This is such a cute idea, and who doesn’t have toilet paper tubes every few days. I’ll have to save my next few and give this a try.

    Stopping by from The Mom Loop Friday follow. I’m your newest follower!

    • admin says

      August 28, 2011 at 10:28 am

      Thanks for stopping by! I’m headed to your site now!

  4. JDaniel4's Mom says

    August 26, 2011 at 9:31 pm

    I love its pink curls. So cute.

  5. Jeanie Cullip says

    August 27, 2011 at 8:31 pm

    fun! we will have to make the spider for Halloween decoration this year..

    a latte of blessings & giggles,
    Jeanie

    • admin says

      August 28, 2011 at 10:27 am

      Yeah, I was thinking it would be a great Halloween decoration… But she really wanted to use that colorful sand right then. LOL.

  6. Robin @ pink dryer lint says

    August 28, 2011 at 9:24 pm

    Clever! Great idea — thanks for sharing!

    I appreciated you dropping by Pink Dryer Lint the other day. 🙂 Your comment made me smile.

  7. Carly says

    September 14, 2013 at 10:44 pm

    Super cute!

  8. Eva @ The Multitasking Mummy says

    September 16, 2013 at 5:59 am

    A Very Cute Idea. I have a whole plastic bag of toilet roll tubes so here’s something I can do with them! Thanks for linking up 🙂

  9. Lanaya | Raising Reagan says

    September 16, 2013 at 7:25 pm

    What a fun project and really simple to do.

    Thank you for linking to Raising Imperfection.
    Please come back Friday to see if you were featured. 🙂

    ¤´¨)
    ¸.•*´
    (¸¤ Lanaya | xoxo
    Raising-Reagan.com

  10. Pinkoddy says

    September 17, 2013 at 1:36 am

    Fantastic! I was going to use pipe cleaners but cutting legs is a fab idea – I’m going to make spiders – I shall pin this and link back to you, hope that is ok.

    • OneMommy says

      September 26, 2013 at 11:26 am

      Can’t wait to see yours! 🙂

  11. Debbie says

    September 17, 2013 at 10:05 pm

    This is so cute! Pinned it! Thanks for sharing at Mom’s Library!

    • OneMommy says

      September 26, 2013 at 11:25 am

      Thank so much for pinning it!

  12. Sara says

    September 19, 2013 at 4:54 pm

    Perfect craft for tp tubes, with great results! Thanks so much for sharing on craft schooling Sunday!

  13. Debs says

    September 24, 2013 at 4:47 am

    How sweet. Thanks for linking to Tuesday Tots. I’m featuring this post this week on Learn with Play at Home 😀

Trackbacks

  1. Sunday FUNday #64 {a link up party} + Features! says:
    September 21, 2013 at 6:33 pm

    […] love us a good toilet paper tube craft, so I was happy that There’s Just One Mommy linked up the fun guy above! So easy and fun! Definitely right up our […]

  2. Halloween Spiders Creations | Life surrounded by Blues says:
    October 11, 2013 at 7:02 am

    […] commenting on various blogs I had come across an octopus toilet roll holder craft on OneMummy, I had originally intended to attach pipe cleaners to a toilet roll holder but when I saw the idea […]

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