DIY Abacus from Recyclables

It’s our turn to share an idea for the Recycle and Create Earth Day series and look at this DIY abacus from recyclables!

Do you have cardboard boxes and cardboard rolls stored up “just in case” you might need it one day? I know you have if you have teacher blood in you, lol! Make this abacus from recyclables, the perfect frugal learning tool!

You will need: 

• Two rectangular cardboard boxes
• Two(or more) tall cardboard rolls(from gift wrap)
• A bunch toilet rolls/paper towel rolls(ones that will fit over the tall rolls)
• paint/tape/stickers(to decorate, optional)

Cut the toilet/paper towel rolls into smaller sizes. (I cut one tp roll into 3.) Cut as many as you need for the tall rolls/rods, 10 per roll. I only did up to twenty, but one can add more tall rolls. You might need bigger boxes for more than 20, and of course more tp rolls as counters.

Make holes in your boxes to fit the tall rolls to fit snugly.

Assemble as shown below:

Now you can decorate the abacus. I painted the counters and added some dots to the boxes, just to make it a bit more appealing. This is totally optional though. The kids might enjoy helping you with at this stage.

Use as you would an abacus. Make an independent activity by using a pack of cards(2-10) and add two(or more) of the numbers together. Or, just use any number cards, draw 2 or more numbers to count up!

Be sure to check out our Recycle and Create for Earth Day series!