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Adventures in Playful Family Living

Make Your Own Mini Clipboards

clipboard_finished

We love using clipboards around here. We have quite a few regular-sized ones, but sometimes it’s nice to have something small to tuck into a bag for a nature hike or car ride. You can buy small clipboards at most office supply stores, but we like making our own using recycled cardboard and binder clips.

Supplies:

  • cardboard, cut to size – cereal boxes, backs of notepads, shoe boxes, etc.
  • binder clips
  • decorative paper (optional) – scrapbooking paper, pieces of your child’s artwork, etc.
  • clear contact paper (optional)

clipboard_supplies

Directions:

  1. If your cardboard is thin, you might want to attach two pieces together. You could glue them together, weight it down and let it dry or use sturdy double-stick tape or glue dots.
  2. Decorate your clipboard or leave it plain! Let your kids be creative! We used glue dots for attaching the paper and artwork, since I didn’t want to wait for glue to dry.
  3. For extra protection and sturdiness, cover the clipboard with clear contact paper. If you do this, you can use dry erase markers right on the contact paper for extra fun!
  4. Attach some paper with a binder clip and you’re done!

clipboard_ideas

Tomorrow I’ll share some of the ways we use our clipboards while we play! Have fun!

clipboard_delaney

Comments

  2. This is a great idea. I also love the fact that you are recycling.

    Kids and recycling go together, in a major way. I am finding that once children are starting the habit of repurposing, the sky is the limit, and some of the ideas they come up with themselves, are FABULOUS!

    I’ll show this idea to my child tomorrow and see what she comes up with..

  3. love, love, love it!!! My 2 year old is really curious about shopping lists lately. I’m gonna make her a lil’ pad for her very own “lists”. Thanks for the idea.

  9. What a simple and useful craft. Love it. These clipboards would be great to use for a write around the house activity. Give your children a clipboard and pencil and have them wander the house looking for words they can write down. They could copy words on cereal boxes in the pantry, titles of books on the shelves, family members’ names on labels… the options are endless. My students loved being able to move around while they practiced reading and writing.

  10. Hello! I just came across your blog through Simple Kids and love the ideas you have here. We’ve done some of these in our home as well but I am always on the look out for other cool ideas that other moms come up with. It’s a tough but rewarding job being a mom :)

    Thanks for sharing such great ideas!