Paper Roll Telescopes Craft

These Paper Roll Telescopes are super fun to make and are a great recycled craft idea!

Simple steps allow even the very little ones to follow along. These telescopes are a fun idea to add to any space study or units. What’s more fun is that kids get to create the “night sky”, by drawing their own stars, moon, shooting stars or whatever they’d like to see in their telescopes!

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Materials for Paper Roll Telescopes:

• Paper rolls
• Cardstock (any color, we used deep purple)
• String
• Sandwich bag
• Permanent marker (we used a brown one, black will work too)
• Hot glue + glue
• Scotch tape
• Washable kids paint (any color, we used brown, blue and green)
• Foam paintbrushes
• Craft scissors

Instructions:

• First, choose a paint color and paint the paper roll using the foam brush and kids washable paint. Let dry.

• While the paint is drying, cut a square of the sandwich bag and draw several stars, shooting stars, moon, whatever you would like using the permanent marker. Make sure the diameter of the picture is small enough to fit across one end of the paper roll.

• When the paper roll is dry, wrap the piece of sandwich bag you drew on to line up with the hole and secure using scotch tape.
• Next, cut a strip of cardstock long enough to cover the tape when wrapped around but leave a bit of the painted paper roll (about 2 inches) showing. Using the hot glue gun (adults should do this step), glue the cardstock around the paper roll to cover the scotch tape/sandwich bag.
• Decorate the telescope in any way you want. We did a simple string accent at the bottom of the telescope and secured it using hot glue.

RELATED: You’ll love this paper roll haircut activity!

watch this video

What is my child learning and improving?

• Following directions (kids are following the steps to make these telescopes)
• Creativity (choosing colors for the cardstock, paint and to decorate)
• Fine motor skills (bending, cutting, drawing the stars, etc.)

Make these Paper Roll telescopes today and let me know in the comments if you enjoyed this craft!