Instructify

When I was a kid, my favorite chair was the floor. Whether wood or plastic, the seat at my desk always wobbled, and after thirty minutes of sitting I could feel my butt go to sleep.

If your kids experience the same discomfort, or you’d just like to add some fun to your furniture, turn to Foldschool. Download blueprints (or, depending on your printer, whiteprints) to create usable kid-sized furniture out of cardboard. You’ll need your printer to print out the patterns, some glue, a ruler, and masking tape. If your students will be helping make the furniture, note you’ll also need grownups-only stuff like a box cutter and cutting mat, a needle, and spray adhesive.

The most difficult resource to find is probably the cardboard itself. But you can often find the stuff at grocery stores, or maybe just call dibs on the cardboard box from that new refrigerator in the teachers lounge.

The Foldschool site states that folding the cardboard makes it very stable, and that their designs can easily support the weight of an adult. They also look pretty cool. For added fun, your students can grab a brush and decorate their new stools and chairs.

Foldschool furniture is also a teaching opportunity to tell kids that reuse is better than recycling – especially when its new use is so awesome. -BILL FERRIS

Foldschool