Do you have little ones who are fascinated by the big trucks and plows they see clearing the roads throughout the winter? Repurpose a cardboard box to make your own miniature snow plow – complete with moving parts!
Winter is here and so is the snowy weather! So many parts of the US are socked in with snow and without power today. If I could send an army of snowplows out from Minnesota, I would do it in a heartbeat, but it’s just a bit beyond my power.
SO, a mini version to keep your little ones entertained is my contribution (no glue guns = no electricity required). In fact, all the supplies I used to put this together are ones you’ll most either have at home or can easily find a substitute for.
I have boxes of plastic lids, small recycled food containers, egg cartons, scrap cardboard pieces, and other bits and bobs I’ve saved from the recycling bin. During long Minnesota cold snaps, this supply set has become invaluable.
I can pull down the ginormous box and start playing with combinations of supplies while bundled in a cozy blanket. It’s fantastic entertainment, fertile ground for creative play, and perfect for those times when everyone’s grown tired of watching movies or playing with the same old toys.
This snowplow came out of one of those random recycled parts play sessions today. There are so many ways you can take the basic ideas and apply ideas YOU might have to make it your own. Looking around the house for “headlights,” “emergency flashers,” a “cab” or possible miniature truck parts makes for a unique little scavenger hunt too!
I kept this pretty simple, but you could add moving wheels, a truck bed filled with faux salt/snow, or other creative details.
We used nuts and bolts to attach the shovel of our snowplow to the truck body, which means our shovel can actually be moved up and down to scoop and raise our faux snow. This small but important design choice is a handy way to incorporate some STEAM-learning, loose parts play, and fine motor development.
Minnesota celebrates the entire winter season and has found quite a few unique ways to honor the helpers that safely see us through to spring. Sidewalk shovelers get shout-outs in the local paper and snowplows are saluted with naming contests (Plow Bunyan, Snowbegone Kenobi, Mississippi Shiver, Sir Salter Scott…the list goes on!) Once you’ve finished your own snowplow, be sure to come up with a fitting name for yours too!
For more small world play winter kids crafts, try making a STEAM-powered snowball factory from a cardboard box, learn about winter hibernation with a paper bag bear cave, or make your own sensory-filled mini pine tree farm small world from pinecones.
To make your own cardboard miniature snowplow you’ll need:
BASIC SUPPLIES:
- A cardboard box and a couple of small crap cardboard pieces
- A paper towel tube
- Tin Foil
- 4 nuts and bolts
- Scissors
- A glue stick
- A plastic container
- Black tape
- Bottle caps or similar for “headlights”
OPTIONAL SUPPLIES:
- For a driver: Our free printable school bus has people templates you can use to draw your own!
- An egg carton, paint, and a foam brush for the “lights” on top
- Black construction paper for lining the back of the “truck cab” and making the “grill”
- Snow! We used polyfill, but you can use anything you prefer!
How to Make a Cardboard Snowplow – DIY Instructions:
Prep your main cardboard plow parts.
Grab a small to medium-sized box to make the main snowplow body. We turned ours inside out and retaped it so the printing would be hidden.
For the plow shovel, cut a paper towel cardboard tube to the shovel length you’d prefer (we made ours a little longer than the front of our “truck”). Cut half of the tube off to create a scoop.
Cover your shovel with tin foil and add a grill to your truck.
Cover your cardboard shovel with tin foil and add paper strips to your box to create the truck grill.
Make the arms that will hold your shovel to your snowplow.
Cut small strips of cardboard and bend to create arms that attach the shovel to the front of your snowplow.
We poked two small holes in our plow shovel and each arm, then attached the arms of our snowplow with small nuts and bolts. Ours are EXTRA small only because I couldn’t find our regular-sized set. Regular-sized nuts and bolts would definitely be easier for kids to handle and screw.
Attach the shovel to the front of your snowplow.
Turn your cardboard box over and poke two small holes through the front. Push 2 nuts and bolts through the holes to attach the snowplow shovel arms to the truck body.
Once finished, tape up the bottom of your box.
Make the accessories for your mini snowplow.
To create a see-through truck cab, we added black electrical tape to a clear plastic container (this gives it the illusion of windows). We made some emergency lights to go on top by painting two egg carton cups orange.
You can also add headlights to your snowplow by using two plastic bottle caps.
Add a snowplow driver.
You can draw a driver on cardstock or thick construction paper and cut it out to create a snowplow driver!
We also traced the shape of the bottom of our plastic container onto a piece of black paper. We cut it out and pasted it to the top of our cardboard truck body. We lined the back of the clear “cab” plastic cab with a small piece of black paper as well. This creates some contrast so our driver really pops!
You’re ready to plow! A snowplow with a shovel you can move up and down – and it didn’t take anything more than some recycled household supplies.
Ideas for Using Your Cardboard Box Snowplow for Winter Small-World Play
Making your own moving miniatures is a wonderful way to practice imaginative hands-on learning through play. Here are a few ideas to help you use this snow plow for creative winter activities and unique lessons in transportation, construction, problem-solving, spatial awareness, storytelling, and more!
1. Create an “Up North” small-world winter village.
This little play plow is a great companion project to our cardboard ice shanties and DIY foam board frozen lake – a dreamy snowy small world setup with scenery that kids growing up in northern climates may recognize as a standard winter landscape.
2. Use your mini snowplow for demolition.
It’s incredibly fun to use your cardboard plows in the demolition of sugar cube ice castles! Build ’em up, then tear ’em down!
3. Create a snow plow obstacle course.
Use the miniature snow plow to create an obstacle course for cars or other small vehicles. Kids can use the snow plow to clear the way and make sure the vehicles can get through safely. You can create a cardboard city neighborhood with more boxes, or make a paper city landscape (it’s the backdrop for the snowplow you see here!). Add building blocks, plastic containers, or other obstacles along the roads that the snow plow has to work around.
4. Use your cardboard snowplows for winter rescue missions.
Set up a small town and use the miniature snow plow to help keep the streets clear during a snowstorm. The plow can be used to clear the way for emergency vehicles, DIY miniature play cars, or DIY peg people.
5. Have mini snow plow races!
Create large areas of soap bubbles or sprinkle some faux snow on large flat surfaces (these could be in bins on a tabletop or outside in the backyard) and line up your fleet of mini snowplows behind a starting line. The first plow to clear all the bubbles or snow from their area wins!
More Recycled Cardboard Kids Toys
Snow day? You can fill a whole day with recycled cardboard play! For inspiration, visit our collection of DIY cardboard dollhouses, collaged cardboard stacking castles, or an upcycled shoebox nature explorer’s kit.
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I love seeing all the ways people make these ideas their own! If you're sharing the results of one of our projects, mention or tag me with @barleyandbirch, or share it in the comments of one of our Pinterest project pins.
