Days to World Animal Day

[tminus t=”2012-10-04″ style=”carbonlite”]World Animal Day[/tminus]

Day-7

This is going to be a quick one. Why? I did this activity with my toddler and you how long a toddler activity lasts –however pintastic it is!

I kept it simple with my almost two-year old with a very short attention span. No gluing,cutting,pretty paper, glitter, sparkly stuff.

[box title=”Things you need” color=”#980b0b”]

• Craft sticks
• Plastic clothespins
• Old yogurt container

[/box]

Before I go on, I can guarantee you that many toddlers (especially if they have older siblings) will pretend the clothespins is an alligator and will try to snap you or worse snap themselves. Common place for snapping nose or fingers.

Use caution and please supervise. Don’t leave toddlers alone with clothespins.

Initially, my plan was to just clip clothespins on an empty yogurt container. Baby A had a fun time clipping the pins around edge while mom was repeating the colors.  While baby A partially paid attention I went overboard and tried a very simple pattern (just alternating colors)

We did this for a little while and baby A was off to snapping her hair with clothespins and having a “gigglishy” good time. Hey, who said fine motor practice has to be on old yogurt container?

When the snapping clothespins timer went off, she started snapping clothespins on the craft sticks. They are pretty hard to get them right on a craft stick, especially for a toddler. Baby A has to figure if she has to snap on the clothespins vertically or horizontally to the stick for it to be sturdy. So it WAS A GREAT FINE MOTOR practice.

Once she practiced with a few, she started her requests.

Here is a simple dog (looks like one?) I made for her.

A few more

I’m sure we will visit craft sticks and clothespins activity again with my pre schooler. This one seemingly has some learning, building( which is a big plus with big A) and major fun potential.

If any of you uber-creative moms/teachers out there feel like commenting, please leave a link where you have created with “just”clothespins.

Thanks for reading

Happy Sharing

Please take a moment to comment

Linking up with Angelique Felix at Children Loving animals