We love Cheerios in our house.
We eat them for breakfast all the time but we also play with them too.
Do you remember those fun candy bracelets where candy beads are strung on a piece of elastic and you get to eat slowly eat the bracelet by biting off the candy pieces? I loved those when I was little! Well, we made a healthier version of a candy bracelet by using just Cheerios and pipe cleaners (I didn’t have any elastic).
I twisted up one end of the pipe cleaner to serve as a knot. Then I showed my daughter how to thread the Cheerios on the pipe cleaners. I only had to show Rachel how to do it one time and she excitedly grabbed the pipe cleaner and went to work.
This really required her to use her fine motor skills. I love activities like this because it strengthens those little hand muscles, improves her hand/eye coordination, and works on her body control. These are all skills that will help her when she is ready to start learning to write.
We also used the Cheerios on the pipe cleaner for a counting lesson.
Once she had filled the pipe cleaner with Cheerios, I wrapped the bracelet around her arm and secured both ends together.
She was so proud of her bracelet!
Then she promptly ate all of the Cheerios!
I later thought that it would add an extra bit of fun to use some colored cereal like Fruit Loops and have her make patterns on the bracelets. There are just so many ways to use this fun snack idea to sneak a little learning into your child’s play.
The Quirky Mommas have other great ideas for snack time learning:
About Kim
Well now I want to go back to the store and grab some “circle” cereals! How fun!
Catherine
http://tbc-tobecontinued.blogspot.com/2012/05/spring-y-decorated-sugar-cookies.html
Fine Motor Skills and Snack too! You can beat that!
This is awesome! I can’t wait to do this with my daughter and niece.
What a fantastic simple idea my daughter has just mastered the art of threading so will love this and the fact that she can eat it after!
Love all the fine motor work involved and you got in a counting lesson too! Score! Pinning this fun idea. Vicky from http://www.messforless.net
I love the idea for using a pipe cleaner!
tried this today – so easy and fun! The boys loved it!