pool noodle Archives - JDaniel4s Mom

Pool Noodle Shark with Rubber Band Launcher

June 27, 2019 By Deirdre

A number of years ago I shared with you a shark-themed pool noodle craft. Recently my friend Caren can up with a way to use my craft idea to make a flying shark with a rubber band launcher. Your kids are just going to love it. It will be fun to make during Shark Week, an ocean-themed birthday party, or an ocean unit at school. While your children will love shooting into the air, I have listed a number of ways that your children can use their shark to explore math concepts at the end of this post.

Before your children start creating their pool noodle sharks, you may want to read them a book about sharks. It will help them gain some background information on sharks and what they look like.

Links below are affiliate links.

Creating the Pool Noodle Shark with Rubberband Launcher

Getting the Supplies Ready

You will need to gather and prepare the following supplies:

6-inch section of a pool noodle
Clothespin with a spring in the center
Thick rubber band
One whole popsicle stick
One half of a popsicle stick
3 fins cut out of a blue foam sheet
2 rows of teeth cut out of a white foam sheet
Black Sharpie marker
Serrated knife
Exacto knife

Getting the Pool Noodle Ready

1. You will need to cut a mouth section out of one end of the pool noodle.
2. Then you will need to cut slits on either side of the pool noodle. The slits need to be right across from each other. You will want them to be about 3 inches from the front of the pool noodle.
3. Next, you will need to place a slit on the top of the pool noodle about 3 inches from the front of the pool noodle.

Finally, you will need to create slits to place the teeth in inside the mouth. You will need a slit at the top and one at the bottom.

Putting the Shark Together

1. You will need to place the rubber band long ways around the clothespin.
2. Place the clothespin in the mouth of the shark. You will want it just barely stick out of the shark’s mouth.

1. Then you will place the whole popsicle stick through the side slots in the shark. A section of the popsicle should stick out on both sides of the shark. (This popsicle stick will hold the rubber band in place too.)
2. A fin will then be glued onto each end of the popsicle stick.
3. Next, you will place the half section of the popsicle stick into the top slot.
4. The final fin will need to be glued onto the half section of the popsicle stick.

Next, you will need to draw eyes on the shark.
The teeth will need to be slipped into the mouth slits.
Finally, you will remove the clothespin from the rubber band.

Playing with the Pool Noodle Shark

Children will need to hold the shark in one hand. Then they will place the pointer finger on the other hand into the rubber band end that is sticking out of the shark. They will need to pull the rubber band forward and the shark back. When they feel the tension on the rubber band, they will let it go and it will fly off their finger.

Math Concepts You Can Explore

Your children can try launching the shark at various angles.
Children can measure how far the shark flies with a measuring tape.
Your children can skip count or count up to a specific number before launching their shark.

Here are some more shark-themed activities!

How to Do Sharks Float?

How to Make a Pool Noodle Shark

How to Draw a Shark with an Algorithm Worksheets

Pool Noodle Ideas – Building Flowers

June 24, 2018 By Deirdre

Pool noodles are great to learn with and great to play with. Earlier this week I shared with you a binary code alphabet activity that featured pool noodles as a learning tool. Today I have a creation and play activity to share with you. After cutting out sections from pool noodles to build flowers, your children can create the two flower pool noodle ideas I came up with. Then they can design flowers of their own.

Gathering the Pool Noodles

The colors of pool noodles you find in your local stores may be different than the ones I found. Below you will find a list of the colors of noodles I found at a dollar store.

Lime Green
Red
Blue
Orange

Cutting the Pool Noodles

You will need a sharp serrated knife to cut the pool noodles.

The Green Pool Noodle

You will need to cut two sections out of the lime green noodle. Each section will need to be about 9 ¾ inches long. Then you will cut each of the sections in half.

Two of the halves will need curves cut into the top and bottom of them to create leaves. The remaining two halves can be used as stems.

The Orange Pool Noodle

You will need to cut 2 4-inch sections out of the orange noodle. Each of those sections will need to be cut in half. Then you will need to cut curves out on one end of each of the sections. These pieces will be used as petals.

The Red Pool Noodle

The red noodle pieces will be used to build both of the flowers. You will need to two nine inches sections for the large petals of the flower with the blue center. Then each of those sections will need to be cut in half. Next, each of the halves will need to have curves cut out of one end of them.

The flower with the ruffled edge will need small pieces cut out of half of a pool noodle section. You will need about ten small pieces.

The Blue Noodle

You will need to cut out two-inch sections out of the blue noodle. They will be used as the center of both flowers.

Floral Pool Noodle Ideas

Your children can start by building a large blossom with two colors of petals.

They can then build a flower with the ruffled edge with pool noodles.

Free Set of Flower Building Challenge Cards

You can download the Challenge Cards for Building Flowers with Pool Noodles and print them out onto cardstock in color. The set includes two additional flowers you children can build.

Other Pool Noodle Ideas

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You can cut out additional petals out of each of the colors of the pool noodle. Your children can use them to create flowers of their own. You can also cut out different styles of leaves and color centers.
Next, you may want to have a book like Planting a Rainbow or Illustrated Encyclopedia of Wild Flowers & Flora of the Worldout for your children to use as a reference tool. Your children may find flowers in these books they would like to build.

It will be fun to see all the different types of flowers your children can create.

If you like this pool noodle activity, here are some more you will like:

Pool Noodle Place Value Game

Building Letters in Binary Code

How to Build a Pool Noodle Shark

Pool Noodle Ideas – Building Letters in Binary Code

June 20, 2018 By Deirdre

Each summer I like to share pool noodle ideas with you. Previously I have shared a pool noodle shark craft, a pool noodle airplane that actually flies, and an addition fact activity. Today I have an activity for your that combines binary code and the letters of the alphabet. (I will be sharing it at a session of a technology conference I will be presenting at in July focusing on learning to code offline.) Your children will have fun exploring it too.

What is Binary Code?

It is the code used by a computer to understand letters, number, symbols, and commands. The code uses groups of 8 numbers to represent each letter, number, symbol, and command. The only numbers that the computer can use to create the code are 0’s and 1’s. The blue pool noodle sections will represent the 0’s and the red sections will represent the 1’s.

Getting the Pool Noodle Sections Ready

You will need to cut 1-inch sections out of a red and a blue pool noodle. Each of your children will need eight poodle sections in each color. A serrated knife will probably be the easiest knife to cut with.

It is totally okay if each of the sections isn’t cut into perfectly flat on the top and bottom. The key is to try to make them as close to 1-inch tall as possible.

Getting the Binary Code Letter Cards Ready

You will need to print out a set of Pool Noodle Ideas -Building Letters in Binary Code cards for your children to explore. The cards were designed to be printed out in color onto cardstock. If you want each of your children to work on the same letter at the same time, you will want to print out a set of building letter cards for each of your children.

Once you have printed out the set, you will need to cut each card in half. You will notice that there are two letter cards on each page.

Exploring the Binary Code Letters with Pool Noodle Sections

As you children work on each letter, they will need to lay out the pool noodles in the pattern shown on the card. You will want to check each of their noodle codes to make sure that they match the ones on their card.

Once they have completed a letter, they can move on to another letter. If they didn’t start with the letter that starts their name, you may want them to work on that one next.

More Pool Noodle Ideas

Abacus Made of Pool Noodles

Fine Motor Activity- Placing Rubberbands on Pool Noodles

Easy Painting Ideas- Gold Medal Printmaking

June 30, 2016 By Deirdre

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I have shared over 17 Olympic themed activities with you over the past few years including a shot put catapult and a printable Olympic passport. (You find all of my Olympic activities and wonderful ideas from others on my Olympics Related Ideas board on Pinterest.) We just love the Olympics at my house. Today I want to share with you some easy painting ideas that can be used for gold medal printmaking. They can be used to create a single gold medal or a painted collage of gold medals. We read the book G is for Gold Medal: An Olympics Alphabet before we started gold medal printmaking.

Gold Medal Printmaking

Supplies

Pool Noodle Section (3 inches tall)
X-ACTO Knife
Ribbon (3 inches wide)
Gold or Yellow Paint
White Paper

Creating the Medal Painting Tool

Use the X-ACTO knife to cut two slits parallel to each other on one side of the pool noodle. The slits should be about 1/2 inch to 3/4 off an inch apart. They will need to cut all the way from the outside of the pool noodle into its center. Think about those slit being in the six o’clock section of the pool noodle. Then cut one slit in the nine o’clock section and another in the three o’clock section in the middle of those areas of the pool noodle. These slits need to go all the way through too. These slits will be areas for the ribbon to be slipped through.

Weave one end of the ribbon through the top slit in the six o’clock section and one end through the bottom. Make sure you have an even amount of ribbon on both ends to thread through the side slits.

Easy Painting Ideas

We painted the back of the pool noodle and the ribbon with paintbrush. The pool noodle was painted yellow and the ribbon was painted blue. Then we flipped them both over onto a piece of white paper. You totally don’t have to do that.

Here are some other easy painting ideas:

You can paint the pool noodle gold, silver or bronze to represent each of the medals awarded at the Olympics.

You can create a fun design with paint on the ribbon. Each Olympic host selects a different type of ribbon or chain for their medals.

You can use a variety of brushes or sponges to paint on the ribbon or brush. Sponge brush or sections flat sponges create fun paint effects.

You can create your painted medal on paper. Then add details to the ribbons and medals with markers or crayons.

If you like this craft idea, here are some more Olympic activities you will like:

Olympic Torch Painting Projects

Fruit Filled Olympic Ring Snack

Elympics – Storybook and Lunch Creation Idea

Olympic Printable Passport

Olympic Shot Put Catapult Design

This is part of an Olympic series being hosted by KC Edventures. Please stop by and check out a list of all the activities.

Place Value Games Played with Pool Noodle Place Cards

July 5, 2015 By Deirdre

I have become kind of obsessed with finding ways to use every section of each of the pool noodles I purchase for crafting, science and math activities this summer. In previous posts I have shared a counting to ten math game, a pool noodle airplane, a pool noodle shark craft, and a batting tee pool noodle idea. Today I have a math activity that focus on place value. I am calling this set of place value games Pool Noodle Place Cards. The numbers are set in pool noodles with wedges cut out of two of their sides. You can tell your children this is just the way you would put place cards in card holders if you were having a fancy dinner or party.

There are several ways to have your children build numbers to show understanding of that numbers place value in these place value games. Each of these place value games could be played to work on one, two, or three digit numbers.

Here are the Place Value Games and How to Play Them

Roll a Number

This game can be played by one or two people. The first step is to roll the dice and to use the numbers that come up on them to decide what numbers can to be built with them. The second step is to select the number they are going to build.

For Example:

If you roll a 3 and 4 with two die, you could build a 34 or a 43.

Next they will need to find the correct number cards to match the number they have selected and place them into the pool noodle place card holders in the right order. Finally they will need to read the number out loud.
If you are playing this game with two people, one person can roll the dice and select the number. The second person can build the number. The dice roller can check to see if the number was built correctly. The builder can read the number out loud.

Number Card Selection Face Down

Cards for each of the numbers 0-9 can be placed upside down on a table. A player can select one, two, or three cards depending on how many digits their number will have. After deciding on what number they are going to build, they can place the numbers in the pool noodle place card holders.

If you are going to play this game with two players, one person can pick out the cards and one can build the number.

Hint: For this game as well as the game below you may want to have more than one card displaying each number.

Number Card Selection Face Up

A player can pick out any numbers they want to build a number with. Then they place those numbers in the pool noodle place card and read the whole number out loud.

Before you start the game you will need to decide if the numbers can be placed back on the table or placed in an already used pile.

Call Out a Number

One player can call out a number with one, two, or three digits and the second player will need to build it. After a few numbers have been built, they can trade jobs.

You will find more pool noodle math games and other math learning activities on my Early Learning Math Board on Pinterest. I would love for you to join the over 10,000 followers of that board so you can stay up to date with the math activities I find by others as well as my own.

Arts and Crafts for Kids- Pool Noodle Shark

June 30, 2015 By Deirdre

We are still coming up with ways to use sections of a pool noodle we had leftover from making a game called Counting to Ten. Last week I shared with you how we experimented with pool noodle airplanes. This week I have pool noodle shark craft to share. We love doing arts and crafts with leftover or recycled items. This shark qualifies as recycled craft because two recycled items were used to make it. The pool noodle section is one and the egg carton that was used for the teeth is the second.

As you can see in the picture above two pieces of pool noodle were used to build the shark’s body. The smaller piece was cut out of the larger piece by cutting a diagonal wedge out of the larger one with a bread knife. (I did the cutting for this project.) The flat side of the smaller piece was glued to the top of the larger section with an Elmer’s Xtreme glue stick.

Wiggly eyes were glued on either side of the shark’s head with the same glue stick. We glued them right on the seam connecting the top and bottom noodle sections

Then it was time to cut the teeth of the egg carton. We cut out twelve small diamond shapes out of styrofoam egg carton. (If you don’t have styrofoam egg cartons available, you could use craft foam.) Each diamond was cut individually so each tooth would be unique.

To get the teeth to stick into the pool noodle a cupcake topper with a sharp end was used to carve out space for each tooth. (If you don’t have one, you can use a toothpick instead.) We pushed in the cupcake topper and turned it in a circle to make a space large enough for each tooth. A little dab of glue from the glue stick was placed on the end of each tooth as it was planted in the shark’s mouth to hold it in place.

Finally, a fin was cut out of a pool noodle section. One end of two toothpicks was poked into the fin. The other end was pushed in the back of the shark’s head. We could have glued the fin on but decided to make extra sure that the fin would stay in place.
While I was thinking about the end product of this being a craft to display, JDaniel pointed out the this would be a great puppet. Maybe we will have to come up with shark songs or rhymes for the shark to perform.

Here are some more shark activities you will love:

How Do Sharks Float?

How to Make a Pool Noodle Shark

How to Draw a Shark with an Algorithm Worksheets

If you decide to try this arts and crafts project at home, please share a picture of it with me on Facebook.

Engineering for Kids- Pool Noodle Airplanes

June 26, 2015 By Deirdre

Engineering for Kids How to Build Pool Noodle Airplanes

We have a lot of pool noodle sections leftover from making a pool noodle math game and a batting tee for the backyard. It was decided that we could use two of the longer pieces to do an engineering for kids project that involved building airplanes. In many ways it was a STEM ( Science, technology, engineering and math) experiment. Various styles of wings, tails, and nose cones were put out or created. Two types of fuselages were made available. The goal was to create a plane that could fly far.

Here is what was done to get ready for the engineering activity for kids:

Engineering for Kids How to Build Pool Noodle Airplanes

There were two fuselages cut made of pool noodles. One pool noodle was left with straight areas in the front and back. One pool noodle it was decided needed to have a slant in the front and a straight back.

Slots were cut on both sides of the pool noodle so triangular shaped wings could be inserted. A small slit was cut in the top of the back section of the pool noodle so cardboard tails could be placed in them if it was decided they needed to be.

Two wings were cut out for the planes. One wing was made of cardboard from a cardboard box. One wing was cut out of meat tray. Extra meat trays were set out for additional wings to be created if these wings didn’t work as we hoped they would.

The front and back of any Easter egg were dug out of Easter storage (a plastic bag in the closet). They would be optional nose cones for the plane.

Pennies were put out to add more weight to the front of the plane inside the egg section.

Goal of the engineering for kids activity

The activity or engineering experiment was to discover what combination of fuselage, wings and additional items would allow the plane to fly the farthest. Engineering for Kids How to Build Pool Noodle Airplanes

Two plane ideas could be tested out at a time due to the fact that we had two sets of wings and fuselages.

Engineering for Kids How to Build Pool Noodle Airplanes

We really thought that the plane body with the angled front would go the farthest. We tried flying it with the angel slanting down and slanting up. We tried flying it with both sections of eggs and with various numbers of pennies. A tail was added and later removed. This plane just didn’t fly very far. It tended to loop a little.

Engineering for Kids How to Build Pool Noodle Airplanes

The plane with straight body went the farthest. When it had the cardboard wings inserted it went farther than it did with the meat tray wings. It really didn’t seem to matter what section of the plastic Easter egg was used. It flew almost the same distance with either one. Placing pennies in the nose cone really helped. My son found out that 4 pennies helped it to fly the best.

I am participating in a fun series this week with awesomely talented bloggers called Craft Closet Boredom Busters. Each day I will be sharing a fun activity you can do with your children along with links to the other bloggers’ ideas!

Here are some of their great activities:

Sparkly Felt Fish from Toddler Approved

Craft Stick Marble Run from Frugal Fun for Boys

Giant Pool Noodle Alphabet Beads from The Educator’s Spin on It

Craft Closet Boredom Busters for Kids- How to Make a Minion Craft Stick Puzzle