Contributing Writer Kim shares this tasty , easy and really fantastically educational activity with us ! I love her perspective of having two children at different levels, enjoy!
Do you remember candy bracelets? This activity puts an educational and healthier twist to that bracelet from your past. All you will need are chenille stems, loop cereal (such as Fruit Cheerios or Fruit Loops), and an egg carton or muffin tin.
This activity is perfect if you have children at different levels of development because it can be implemented in so many different ways. I have a toddler and a preschooler. Activities that they can both do at the same time score big points with me. I gave my daughter an egg carton and asked her to put the cereal in each compartment. This works great for developing motor skills.
My son was given a muffin tin and asked to sort the cereal by colors. While both of the children put the cereal in their containers, I folded the tips of the chenille stems inward to make sure the wire did not poke the children.
After my son was finished sorting, I gave him a chenille straw. I asked which colors he would like to use to make a bracelet. Out of six colors, he only wanted to use two. So I asked him to thread the cereal onto the stem in a pattern of green, green, orange, orange. Depending on your child, you can do patterns of ABAB, AABB (like we did), ABCABC, or any other pattern.
While my son was threading his cereal, I tried to show my daughter how to thread the cereal onto the stem. As soon as we got one piece of cereal on she would chomp on it and giggle. It was extremely cute and provided her with a ton of fine motor skill practice, but didn’t help me get a picture to share with you. My daughter is only 19 months old and is not ready for patterns, but simply threading the cereal onto the stem is a great activity. She also just used the chenille stem as a hockey stick to shoot the cereal onto the floor. We will just call that a hand-eye coordination building exercise. Mommy didn’t appreciate it very much and put an end to it quickly.
When my son was finished threading the cereal we talked about the pattern and how it made the string look a certain way because of the pattern. I put on a purple and a red at the very end and asked him if those two matched the rest. We talked about how those two didn’t fit in with the pattern, so he decided they needed to be taken off.
To make it a neat bracelet we simply wrapped the chenille stem around his wrist and twisted the ends together. Now you have a great snack to finish up your fun learning activity. The best thing about this snack is that it is portable and can be taken along for the fun.
My son’s preschool class does this activity on a regular basis. As you can imagine it is a big hit with the girls, but met with the same enthusiasm from the boys. I want to thank my son’s preschool teachers for providing me with a fun learning activity that is so easy to do at home. I know they aren’t the ones that originated it, but they shared it with me and I thought I would share it with you.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Kim is a contributing writer for No Time For Flash Cards, a mom to a toddler, a preschooler, and a foster parent, too. She juggles her day by trying out fun activities and crafts with the kids. After all, she is just a big kid herself. See what she has been up to over at Mom Tried It.
Jennifer says
Very clever idea! Although my 21-month old would be more interested in eating them than making them! LOL!
.-= Jennifer´s last blog ..I’ve Been Banned and Giveaway #4! =-.
Ket says
Wow, what a neat idea! I have a 2 1/2 year old and a 15 month old… I bet this would go over well! Time to add sticks and fruit cereal to the grocery list!
Brenna says
I love this idea and did it with the kids at my daughter’s backyard birthday party last year. She could probably try to do it now, although might have the same trouble not eating them all up!
.-= Brenna´s last blog ..The oil spill… =-.
admin says
When I am doing crafts with treats like jelly beans or marshmallows or cereal a cute trick that has worked not just for my son but for groups of children in a class it to allow them a small pile to eat after putting some on. So with a little non counting toddler simply say ” This is your treat pile, and these are for art” Mommy will tell you when you can have a treat ( I usually started off with one) . Start the project and after they use one or 2 for art allow them another, then space it out a bit more. With older counting toddlers and preschoolers, give them numbers like 5, 9, 12, 14 and after they use that many for art they can have one for their belly!
Hope that helps!
Anne says
How fun! My daughters love anything that let’s them play with their food. Here are a couple fun math activities we did with Fruit Loops. http://www.teachingtwo.com/2009/08/18/froot-loops-math-part-2/
Julie says
I made 50 “candy” necklaces for DS’s daycare Halloween party a few years ago using Fruit Loop type cereal (but lower sugar) and licorice laces. It was a huge hit with the toddlers!
Rachel says
We did this a few months ago only we used ribbon. It was a struggle for my two year old to thread the cereal on the ribbon, pipe cleaners are brilliant! We also added a pattern prediction game to our snack for edible learning.
.-= Rachel´s last blog ..Sock Mopping: Exercise and Clean at the Same Time =-.
Salina says
I was so excited to give this a go! I think it took me all of 5 min from teh time I read this to the time we were sliding a Fruit Loop on a pipe cleaner!! 🙂 Thank You for sharing. I shared on my blog as well.
.-= Salina´s last blog ..Fruit Loop Fun =-.
lauren says
We did this project today and I shared on my blog http://lar1203-alittlebirdy.blogspot.com/2010/05/monday-motor-skills.html
friendship bracelet patterns says
Hi. I have been secretly viewing for a while now on this blog and finally have the courage up to say thanks to you. You’ve inspired me to start out my own blog. which I don’t have a confident if that will eventually work or not. Anyways..thanks for your sharing into this crazy blogging world!
Bethany says
My son loved this! If you already have the fruit loops, my friend’s son did a cool craft with them as well. You draw a rainbow on construction paper and they glue the fruit loops on the correct color. Don’t put too many on though or it will be too heavy to hang!
admin says
Love the rainbow idea, if you are worried about it being heavy you can use marshmallows https://www.notimeforflashcards.com/2009/02/frugal-friday.html
Georgina says
I’ve featured this activity in my latest Craftulate blog post on Larder Crafts for Toddlers. You’re welcome to see it here http://craftulate.blogspot.com/2013/02/30-larder-crafts-for-toddlers.html – please grab a Featured Button if you’d like to. Thanks for the inspiration!
Chandler Depue says
is it okay if i don’t have any pipe cleaners and i just have string anyways it is so fun that my my little brother is having so much fun thank you!