Tag: straws

Pom Pom Target Practice

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Pom Pom Target (4)

Learning to huff down through a straw is a great skill for kids to master. It’s the first step towards blowing bubbles, tooting into a flute, and so much more. To help hone the skill, we practice today on pom poms, and threw in a target for good measure!

To set up, I taped two squares on the floor with masking tape, one smaller one inside a larger.

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Veronika was quite intrigued when she saw the set up with the straws, and for a while was mainly interested in the straws themselves, practicing her huffing skills.

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Then I showed her how to aim the straw at a pom pom, which would send it skittering towards the middle. We got silly down on our tummies as we took aim.

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It was hard for her to move the pom poms very far, but she giggled for each one I sent skittering. For a little extra hand-eye-coordination, I set a plastic container in the center, and she started tossing the pom poms in. “Plop!” she said, as she dropped each one.

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Then she would dump the bin and start over! Whether huffing through a straw or tossing with hands, this game is a great way to hone a toddler’s target skills.

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Straw-Threaded Shoestring Necklace

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Straw-Beaded Necklace (6)

Veronika is just starting to love dress-up, especially adorning herself with ribbons, beaded bracelets, and other accessories. She’s also at the perfect age to hone the fine motor skills needed for threading. So this activity combined the two perfectly!

To start, I set out a tray with colorful paper straws and her safety scissors. She wasn’t strong enough to cut through the straws, but she loved trying! Meanwhile, I worked alongside her and snipped each straw into several smaller pieces.

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Give your toddler a shoelace or craft lace, and show him or her how to poke the tip into each piece of straw, then pull all the way through.

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Veronika was delighted when she could do this alone, working with such concentration on her face. It was harder for her to pull the lace all the way through, but a little mommy assistance did the trick.

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She loved deciding which color straw piece we should add next! Once the lace was full, I tied it into a knot so she could wear it as a necklace.

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My little fashionista! She had so much fun that we made a second one for mommy to wear, too.

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Straw Windpipe Craft

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Straw Flute (9)

This classic DIY instrument is a perfect one for toddlers, requiring no complicated steps or materials.

Simply line up brightly colored plastic or paper straws. I made some flutes that were 8 “pipes” long and a few smaller ones only 6 straws long, which were easier for Veronika to hold in her hands.

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Secure with tape near the top and bottom third, then use scissors to snip in a diagonal so your pipes run from longest to shortest.

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Toot toot toot! These were perfect to play during her at-home Zoom music class, adding to the hands-on fun!

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It turned out that big brother Travis loved the windpipe, too, quickly incorporating it into his play.

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The perfect instrument for a homemade marching band, in sum.

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Bendy Straw Experiments

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Floating Ball (4)

I have a pack of bendy straws at home, and this morning Travis and I used them in 3 experiments! Try one or all three, and see which is your family’s favorite.

Pom-Pom Popper:

For the first, poke a small hole in a dixie cup. If your cup is paper, kids can punch through with a pencil tip. We had plastic cups so I used a craft knife to make the slit.

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Cut the tip from a bendy straw just before the bend. Insert the bent end into the cup’s hole and tape on.

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Place a pom-pom in the cup and blow. Some good lung power can really make these jump!

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Travis was so proud when he was able to do it.

Floating Ball:

The next experiment was similar, but we got a little craftier. Cut circles from colored construction paper, and cut a slit in each to the center. Fold up into cones, securing with tape.

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Snip a small hole in the tip of each cone and insert the bent part of a bendy straw; tape on for extra security.

For extra fun, make them monster mouth cones! We cut out teeth and eyes from additional colored paper and taped on the features. If you want a cleaner look, use glue to attach, but Travis was eager to get to the next step of making the monster eat a silver ball!

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Crumple up a small piece of aluminum foil and place just over the opening of the straw. Huff into the other end and your ball will pop and spin and dance just where the monster can’t eat it.

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Bubble Valve:

The final experiment was the simplest, but still fun. Cut a tiny slit in the top of an uninflated balloon, just large enough for a straw to fit. Insert the bottom end of a bendy straw. If your hole is a little too large, ideally get a new balloon and start again. This was the last balloon in the house, though, so I taped over a small gap between balloon and straw.

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Insert into a clear glass of water, then blow into the straw to make bubbles. Try and suck up to get a drink through the straw, too, which is much harder!

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Travis loved that he was able to do this one, too.

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Monster and Creature Straw Paintings

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Monster Straw Art (10)

Travis recently learned to make blobs of watercolor paints turn into art with nothing more than a straw, thanks to Kiwi Crate! He loved the activity so much that today we did a repeat, this time creating a set of silly monsters.

Travis chose three colors of liquid watercolor for the first piece of paper, and we dripped on a nice blob of each. Then he proudly blew through a straw.

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He loves that he can do this now, scattering the paint with no fear of inhaling it, which wasn’t the case at first.

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We soon had crazy wobbly waving shapes.

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We examined them carefully to see what monsters we could identify! Travis loved pointing out antennae, six-legged fiends, holes for their eyes and more.

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Of course we needed to repeat with a new set of colors. “I want to make lots!” Travis declared.

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For the final piece of paper, he combined two colors (blue and black) in one big blob in the center and huffed out a giant monster with his straw.

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Let the paint dry completely.

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Once dry, we could add details. I suggested gluing down wiggle eyes, but Travis preferred to add embellishments with a marker, including giant cyclops eyes.

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And fire for this one, that reminded us of a dragon!

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All in all, this was frightfully good fun.

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Straws in a Bottle

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Straws in Bottle (1)

Looking for a quick and portable way to entertain a toddler? This game takes up no space at all, which makes it ideal for airplanes, dinner tables, or just on the floor at home in a pinch.

I used a clear empty water bottle and gave Veronika an assortment of colored straws that she could place inside. Bright colors make this particularly fun, so we used turquoise and sparkly ones.

Of course first she just wanted to screw the bottle cap on and off.

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Then I showed her how to aim one straw at the bottle at a time and drop it inside; letting go is equally a part of the lesson here. Veronika got the hang of it quickly!

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She loved fitting in all the straws…

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…after which there was the fun off dumping them back out.

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When the bottle was full of straws, we could put on the cap and shake it like a maraca.

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Then you can dump and start all over again, making this the game that keeps on going. Later she found other toys around her playroom to slot the straws into.

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There’s tons of fun to be had here, with the lowest tech components possible.

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Straws and Yarn

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This project is fantastic for keeping motor skills sharp in the summer break between preschool and kindergarten… and the final product easily becomes a gift for someone special, whether a graduation or a birthday!

Tie a piece of yarn to a drinking straw with a tight knot; set aside. Help your child snip straws into pieces of varying size. We used wide pastel-colored milkshake straws, and discovered that the smaller we snipped them, the more they were ilke “beads” for our necklace.

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The straws could be a bit tough to snip, and Travis loved when pieces went flying!

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Have your child begin threading them on to the yarn.

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Travis tried a few tactics, including pushing a straw “bead” onto the yarn, or pulling the yarn up through.

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I loved his patience and concentration as he worked!

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Once long enough for a necklace, tie the two ends of the yarn into a secure knot.

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Travis enjoyed the project so much that he insisted we make two; he didn’t want either grandmother to feel left out, so we’ll be gifting two of these!

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Flying Paper, Two Ways

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Here are two fun ways to harness the power of paper and watch things take flight.

Both of these projects are far less involved than the rockets and planes Travis and I have made recently, but sometimes you just need something simple to fill a lazy morning.

First we made a school of  “flipping fishies”.

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Draw rectangles on white paper and color in. The more colors the better!

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Cut out the rectangles, and cut a notch on each end, facing in opposite directions.

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Slot these notches together and you have fish. Soon we had mommies, daddies, and baby fish.

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Toss them in the air and watch them whirl!

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Interestingly, we discovered that our baby fish swirled much better than the bigger ones we made.

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Next up, we did a repeat of a flying straw we’d made recently with a Kiwi Crate; as with our repeat of the Balloon Rocket, this time we used wide (“milkshake”) straws for better effect.

Cutting out rectangles was great practice for Travis to cut in straight lines!

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For each straw, make one long rectangle, and one short; tape these into circles, and tape onto the straws.

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Hold your straw so the small circle is at the front – and let it soar!

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Those paper circles really catch the wind, and will carry your straw across a room. It’s fun to compare these to a plain old straw, which nose-dives right down.

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Happy flying!

“Watercolor” Art

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We revisited two old art ideas today – both of them imitating watercolor painting without use of actual watercolors! – when Travis stumbled across something by accident. We were playing with his magnet set in water (yes, magnets work in water!) and he decided he wanted to dip his markers in as well.

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I pulled out watercolor paper for him, and he loved the way that the wet marker tips looked smeary on the paper – just like watercolor paints. This was an activity I first did with him as a two year old – so long ago this blog didn’t exist! Quite fun to revisit with him at an older age.

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It reminded me of a time we turned regular paint into something closer to “watercolors.” This was back in the fall, so our final product was Halloween “monsters”. This time we chose pretty spring pastels.

Mix your tempera paint with a little water, and you have a nice thin consistency that will work for this project.

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Place a straw in each color; put your finger on top of the straw to create a vacuum, then drip onto watercolor paper.

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Blow into the straw (make sure your children are old enough to blow out, not suck in!), and the paint will spread in beautiful patterns all over the paper.

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Travis tired of the straw quickly, but loved telling me which color to put where until we had a beautiful spring picture.

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We decided it looked like the tulips we’d seen in the park that day!

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