... because I don't think I would have ever quite come up with this idea on my own! Jennifer AKA Montessori Mama created this pushing pipe cleaners activity for her toddler classroom and posted about it a couple weeks ago. Then, I saw that Melissa from Chasing Cheerios had also set this lesson up for her sweet little one. My classroom has quite a few toddler-ish 3-year-olds, so I was eager to set this lesson up for their busy little hands. There must be a sensitive period for pushing things through holes... Anyway, I finally got around to setting it up yesterday, and it has been absolutely off the hook since then. Honestly - every time I present it, they crowd around me, eyes unblinking, eagerly anticipating their turn. :)
In the end, I switched it up somewhat from its original version. I couldn't find a big spice shaker, so I settled for a tiny salt shaker. It only has eight holes to push the pipe cleaners through, so I added a little jar of beads. After the child has finished filling the holes, she can push beads over the pipe cleaners, too.
The trickiest part has been convincing the little ones that they can't bring the beaded pipe cleaners home; they have to put everything back, so other "friends" can push pipe cleaners, too. I've been explaining to them that their work is "impermanent sculpture." What a concept!
I just put this together for my 2.5 year old, and she had a great time with it. Of course, when she was done, she insisted on cleaning up by putting all the beads in the salt shaker since I didn't have a lidded jar for them... The salt shaker could double as bead storage, except I used larger wooden beads that I could barely shake out when I found them there. :-/
ReplyDeleteHi there, just caught up on your fab blog! Thanks for the ideas!(mom of a 5 year old)
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