Making Presents for Play

I saw cute little presents that one of the teachers made today and thought I’d post how to make them. I wasn’t able to take pictures, but I’ll describe them the best I can. It’s not very difficult.

Materials:
Styrofoam blocks or empty boxes,
Different fabric or wrapping paper,
Ribbon and or string.


This person took little blocks of Styrofoam. She cut up the type of foam you can find in the craft section that you can use to hold flowers. They were rectangles and squares about the size of smaller leggos, but you can make them any size you want.
After cutting the shapes you want, cut colored fabric or wrapping paper a little larger than the foam shape. Then wrap it like it’s a present and make sure all corners are tucked in. Next, take two pieces of ribbon or string. Tie one around the gift from bottom to top and then tie another string from one side of the gift to the other. This way, the fabric won’t come apart since the ribbon is on each side. Tie the pieces into a bow on the top of the gift. That’s all you have to do.

Some of the presents had gold wrapping paper and ribbon, others had solid red fabric and others had red and green striped fabric with red yarn. You can use any kind of fabric, felt, wrapping paper, and homemade wrapping paper. You can use basically any material that you can wrap with. For the gift part, I’ve seen people use wooden blocks, different types of foam and of course empty boxes. To add to the gift, you can put different things inside to change the weight and sound if you are using empty boxes. Today, these were in the sensory table with shells, sand and trucks so they seemed out of place, but they’d work well in a holiday themed sensory tub. The only thing that makes sense is that the trucks were delivering the packages. You could use these little gifts for sorting, patterning, counting, or larger gifts for dramatic play. If your kids are old enough, they could even help you make them.