Material Required for Block Building: an assortment of boxes varied in size and shape.

Building with blocks is always fun, as you know. You have tried it with cubes, and with dominoes, and with cards—but did you ever try to build with boxes in the same way?

The boxes do not need to be glued. Their covers may or may not be used. Small boxes make walls, and box covers form roofs. You will see a tall block building in the picture. It was made from small drug-store boxes. There is really no end to the ways in which you may build with these.

From boxes of uneven size, men and animals may be made. Round boxes or small oblong boxes form heads. Larger boxes make bodies. Legs and arms are boxes of equal size.

The faces are drawn with pencil upon the back of boxes where there is no print. A wire hair-pin will keep the arms in place. It will need to be pressed through the box sides and bent so that the arm boxes may be slipped upon it. Men of all sorts may be made. There is great variety, as forms vary with the shape and size of boxes that you use.

If you are playing with some other child, you will find that it is amusing to divide your store of boxes, each choosing one at a time till the supply is exhausted. Then, you may each see how many different things you can build. It will be a game, and the winner will be the one who can make the most with his store.

It is entertaining to play with box animals and box men when you have to spend a day in bed. They may be placed upon a table near the bedside. They are light to handle, and they require no cutting or pasting to muss you up. If you decide to have measles or mumps, the little boxes may be disposed of easily after you have played with them. You can always find new ones to take their place when you are well again.

You may make a puzzle for yourself out of a large box and a number of smaller boxes of varied size. Try to pack as many boxes as you can into the large box. Make them come as evenly as you can in packing. There will be some space at sides, but with care and thought you will be surprised to see how small a space they may be packed into. Try them in various forms, till you are sure you have reached the best way to arrange them. Then, give the box puzzle to some friend to see if he can do with one or two attempts what you have accomplished. When you give some person this puzzle, mix your boxes well so there is no clue to their proper arrangement inside the larger box.

Toys like trains may be built with little more than a long cracker box for a coach and some oblong box for engine. The engine’s smoke-stack is a round box. Its coal-car is a cover taken from a candy box. Its wheels are buttons or button molds placed on the ends of wire hair-pins that have been pressed through the sides of the cardboard boxes. A bit of wax or plasticine will keep the wheels in place.

Paste boxes to the back of your cut-outs when you buy these sheets at the penny store. The Indians, cowboys, soldiers, and animals will then stand erect by themselves.

You will have an interesting time, I am sure, in finding new ways to use your boxes in this kind of play. It is always new, for you may always find different kinds of boxes to adapt to the building. And the nice thing about it is that you can make almost anything you choose.