POOL NOODLES = HOURS OF ENTERTAINMENT
POOL NOODLES!!! They are one of our favorite go to item, when preparing activities and games for our kids. They’re affordable, colorful and can handle heavy handling! They’re great for indoor or outdoor activities, rain or shine. So today, we are going to share with you some fun activities that we have done with our kids using this simple foam.
DIY Balance Beam
You’ll be surprised, by how versatile pool noodles are when incorporating them into physical activities. One of our favorites is using them as balance beams. Simply place them on the floor and volia! Balance Beam!
We can hear you thinking “but that’s such an easy activity!!” We urge you to try it! It’s not as easy as it looks. Due to the round structure of the pool noodle and its bendy nature, balancing on it is no simple task. Even our therapists fall off half way through. So to make it simpler for our younger kids, we cut the pool noodles down the centre. When then get better at their balance, we give them the original pool noodle to balance on. Try it out!! It’s load of fun!!
Hit the Balloon/Ball Game!!
This is a hit with all our students! All you need is a couple of blown up balloons or beach balls. The kids are required to hit the balloons and balls using the pool noodles which can be cut down to size to fit them.
This activity is used for myriads of learning goals, from spatial awareness, color recognition, counting to following instructions! So basically, one activity many learning goals!! Also, it’s safe! We do have kids getting frustrated and throwing the pool noodles. However, since it’s light, it doesn’t hurt anyone. Can we mention that we also get some of our kids to throw the pool noodles around as a form to work on their spatial awareness as well as gross motor skills?? Ssshh…..
Motor Skills!
Pool noodles are great for threading activities. Simply cut them out into small circles and get your kids to string them. We teach patterning using this activity too.
Alternatively, use poms-poms and tweezers and get get them to place poms-poms into each circular cut out pool noodle.
Another way we use pool noodles is to make boats and letting them float on water. We make it into playtime for kids by teaching them to blow!! This has
always been a really fun activity, where you will definitely see at some point, your kids cheating by using their hands… but where is the fun in always blowing right? Of course, as therapists and educators, we ensure that instructions are followed. But we always want to have fun….. so we teach imitating skills by getting kids to model whatever actions we do! Pushing, pulling, shaking, etc. Hours of fun but be ready to get wet!!
Water play!
Of course how can we leave water play out?! After all, the original use for pool noodles was for water! Since we can’t bring our kids to the pool, (safety issues and well……water fun in the middle of the day puts both our therapists and parents off…. Sunburn issues if you know what we mean)
we created water tunnels for kids to play with. All you need is some funnels, tape or string, cups containers, coloring and of course pool noodles! Using these we can create a wide variety of obstacle courses for kids to explore. These activity can be used to teach so many different concepts! We have done measurements, counting and even increasing their speech! Every play is a learning opportunity after all. Try it at home! We can even use it as positive reinforcements for toilet trainings!!
There are so many ways to use pool noodles!! these are just some fun ways. All we need is a little imagination and creativity and we realise how versatile these toys are!!
