Pony Beads and Pipe Cleaners

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Materials:

• several pipe cleaners
• handful of pony beads
  

How to make: 
Have child thread pony beads onto the pipe cleaners to practice fine motor control. They could also match bead colors to the pipe cleaners.

Extend the fine motor skill practice by threading the pipe cleaners into an upside-down colander.

Jillian, 20 months old

20-month-old Jillian can string the beads on the pipe cleaners with the help of someone holding the pipe cleaner for her.

Leah, 2.5 years old

Leah, 2.5 years old

This is another favorite, after I added some more pipe cleaners and beads (our swap set only came with 2 pipe cleaners and 10 beads). She sometimes sorts them by color, but more often uses a variety of colors to make bracelets. She gets a kick out of making "jewelry" for herself and others to wear!

Leah, 2.5 years old

There were only 2 pipe cleaners and 10 pony beads (5 of each color to match the pipe cleaners) in our swap bags, and Leah put all the beads on the correctly matched pipe cleaners in about a minute on her first try. So I bought a cheap colander at Walmart specifically to give her to play with, as well as more pipe cleaners and pony beads. Here she's "making art" with the pipe cleaners and colander.