Looking for a cheap material that can really multitask?
Pick up a pool noodle!
You can find them at the dollar store. And they come in SO many fun colors. With a minute of prep, your kids can perfect their fine motor skills, practice their engineering, and pretend to be pastry chefs. Now that’s a dollar well spent!
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Supplies:
A Serrated Knife
Rubber Bands
Instructions:
Cut the pool noodle into ten 1-2 inch slices. Place the slices on a table and invite your children to place pom poms or other small objects inside the inner hole of the pool noodle.
We have absolutely LOVED our little Fine Motor Tool Set! It is used here nearly every day of the week!
My boys quickly turned this into pretend play. They loved filling the “donuts” with flavored “jelly”. They love having me be their customer and kept asking me to place order after order. Nothing like a green donut with purple filling! Yum!
When your child gets tired of “baking”, you can suggest they start building. My boys turned the donuts into blocks and immediate constructed towers. They were really fun to stack!
With a larger piece of pool noodle, see if your child has the coordination to stretch a rubber band over and around the outside. It’s trickier than it looks for little hands.
These activities barely scratch the surface of all the things you can do with a simple pool noodle. Check out this mega round-up of ideas for learning and play with a pool noodle.
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Margaret@YourTherapySource says
Great ideas! I LOVE pool noodles. So cheap and so versatile to encourage fine motor, visual and gross motor skills.
Julie says
Thanks! Looks like you have some great ideas on your site too!