pipe cleaner Archives - JDaniel4s Mom

Fine Motor Skills- Christmas DIY Wreath Ornament

November 20, 2015 By Deirdre

After having so much fun threading beads for our threaded star tree, we made an ornament by threading a pipe cleaner. It was the second in our series of three Christmas ornaments that focused using our fine motor skills.

We have bunch of burlap left from a project we did last summer for Totschooling. The loose weave of burlap makes it perfect for weaving. Pipe cleaners slip easily through its open space.

Christmas Wreath Ornament

Materials

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Directions:

We started using our fine motor skills to make this Christmas ornament by cutting some green burlap into strips a foot long. They were about three inches wide.

Next we wove sparkly and holiday colored pipe cleaner through the burlap. There were about 2 inches between stitches. We continued weaving up and down until we reached about two inches for the end of the strip.

As we wove the pipe cleaner through the burlap, we pushed it down the pipe cleaner. That gave us a bunch of burlap at one end.

Then we formed the pipe cleaner into a circle and tied a knot to close off the circle. The ends of the pipe cleaner were cut up close to the knot.

The bunch burlap was then pushed around the circle we created. We tried to even out the folds of burlap. It helped you create a balanced wreath.

A second pipe cleaner of another color was used to make a bow. We used a little piece from the first pipe cleaner to attach the bow to the wreath.

Variations:

You could add a bead to the pipe cleaner between your stitches. They would look like berries on your wreath.

We used green burlap to make our wreath. I think you could used any color of burlap that you like. I think tan or red would look pretty too.

Here are some other wonderful Christmas fine motor skills based crafts:

Threaded Star Tree

Doily Painted Angel

Branch Bracelets

Spelling Games With Mixed Up Words and Apples

September 4, 2014 By Deirdre

We recently purchased a huge container of red plastic cups to use at a family reunion. We must have over bought because there were tons of red cups left over. We can save some for the next family gathering, but I just knew we could use some of them now for spelling games. I just needed to think about how for a little while. What I came up with was a group of spelling games that are played with mixed up letters placed under red plastic cup apples.

Let me walk you through how I put together the games and then I will share with the spelling games I came up with.

Here is how the spelling games were put together:

Supplies:

Red plastic cups

Green pipe cleaners

Green construction paper

Scissors

Index cards

Green magic marker

Directions for putting them together:

1. Cut a small slit in the bottoms of 10 plastic cups. (If you have more than 1o spelling words, you will need more cups.)

2. Cut the green pipe cleaners into thirds.

3. Cut out 10 leaves from the green construction paper and place a small slit near the front of each leaf.

4. Push the pipe cleaner through the slit in the leaf and then into the hole in the cup. Leave some of the pipe cleaner on the other side of the leaf to make a stem.

5. Write a spelling word on each of the index cards. You may want to leave large spaces between your letters or fold them into the number of sections your will
need for each letter.

6. Cut each index card so that each individual letter will be on its on piece of index card.

7. Put the sections of index card for each word under a plastic cup.

Here are the Spelling Games:

Unscramble One Apple At a Time

The title of this game tells just what children do to play the game. Children will need to take the pieces of a word from under one cup and unscramble them. When children have the word unscrambled, they will move on the next apple cup.

Time Me

Children can use a watch or timer to see how fast you can unscramble each of the words under an apple cup. You can set a goal to go faster each time or estimate how long it will take you to unscramble each apple. Children will be able to make better estimates after they have completed a few apples.

You Go and Then I Do

Set out the apple cups in two rows. Each cup in each row has a mixed up word under it. Children will work in pairs to unscramble the words. They can work on each row together or see who can complete their row first. If they are working against each other, make sure they get a chance to work with each set of words.

I am sure you can come up with more spelling games using the mixed up words and the cute apple cup creations. If you have one you want to share, please leave a comment below or on my Facebook page.

{Kids Math} Fact Family Learning Tool

January 31, 2014 By Deirdre

Fact families are a hard thing for some children to wrap their brains around. JDaniel and I recently put together some kids math activities that work on fact families. Yes, he helped me put them together. Part of having him understand tools we would need to do the activities was to help create them. I have made many activities and learning tools for him. He has helped make a number of them too. The ones that he has helped to make he was the most excited about.

I put out a bunch of pipe cleaners and star shaped threading beads sorted by color for us to work with. The beads were sorted by color to make it easier to group them on the pipe cleaners for the number facts.

“We are going to come up with number sentences that equal ten,” I told him.

“Let’s start with 1+9. Pick a star in one color and then select nine stars of another color. Then we will thread them onto a pipe cleaner. The single color goes first and then the nine other stars.” I said continuing to explain the activity.

He slowly threaded on the bead for 1+9 and then started in on 2+8. This process continued until he had pipe cleaners displaying 1+9, 2+8, 3+7, 4+6 and 5+5 arranged in a column.

Then I pulled out a large piece of construction paper with number sentences on the front and back. We started with the number facts on the front. I had JDaniel arrange the number fact pipe cleaners above the number fact that they displayed. We counted the beads on each pipe cleaner to make sure that they really did match. ( I think it is important for kid math activities to use various learning styles. This one uses oral written communication and hands on learning.)

When we had worked on the front of the paper, I turned the paper over to the back. The number sentences on the back were the ones from the front turned around. Instead of 1+9 the fact 9+1 was displayed. We talked about how we could turn the pipe cleaner display of 1+9 to get 9+1. The use of a visual display really helped him get it.

JDaniel decided we need to work parallel on number facts together to extend the activity. We both took turns writing number fact sentences on index cards. JDaniel took some pictures of me, but I decided they weren’t going to go in the post. I will share those lovely pictures on Facebook instead.

How else can you use these pipe cleaner number sentences?

The beads slide up and down the pipe cleaner and counted.
The pipe cleaner sentences are arranged with even numbers on the red pipe cleaners and the odd numbers on beige pipe cleaners. You can talk about how even number plus even numbers equal even numbers and odd numbers plus odd numbers equal even numbers. That is so cool!

How else could be use these pipe cleaner kids math number sentences?Deirdre Smith writes/owns JDaniel4’s Mom. After twenty years as a elementary school and technology resource teacher in Northern Virginia, she became a stay at home mom in upstate South Carolina. Her blog features ways she and her 5 year old are exploring learning, crafting, creating healthy meals and living life to its fullest. Deirdre can also be found on her blog’s FB page. You can also check her out on Google+.