Cereal Threading with Pipe Cleaners

This activity was FUN! The kids loved it, I loved it, minimal clean up, and they came back to it several times in the same day. Serious wins in my book.

I love being resourceful and using things we already have in the house for activities. My kids are currently obsessed with paper towel rolls and ask us to save them all the time. Anyone else? This game used up some old cereal and a paper towel roll!

I set this activity up as a game, but plan to use it as parallel individual activities in the future. It was a hit, so I’m sure we will revisit this.

The game aspect was helpful in a few ways. This involved some new concepts for my 3-year-old (V), and I anticipated she would need more direction. I try to avoid only helping her to the neglect of her 5-year-old sister (B), so if I feel like it might be an issue, I make it a cooperative activity if I can.

Also, they are both heading to school in just a few weeks (I’m in denial and refuse to count until I turn to August in my planner), and I wanted to practice turn taking. We do a lot of free play here which is wonderful, but sometimes not as structured as school might be. Gaining exposure to waiting and following directions is a good reminder for B and a good learning opportunity for V.

Here’s what you need

• Paper towel roll. Use one for each child if you are doing this individually or use one for the group if playing the game version.

• Colored “O” shaped cereal. We have a box of stale fruity cereal that I keep specifically for activities.

• Box/plain sheet of paper.

• Markers or crayons

• Pipe cleaners. We started with cotton swabs (the piece of cereal I randomly tested worked, but most of the other pieces did not fit on the cotton swab), but quickly pivoted to pipe cleaners. Just start with pipe cleaners and save your sanity.

• Die/dice. We only used one die because it was a new way of counting for my 3-year-old and I didn’t want the game to take too long. You could easily use 1-2+ dice for older children.

• Scissors

• We used a full glass bottle to help hold the paper towel roll up.

Set up

5 minutes

1. Fill a bowl with fruit/colored cereal. Option- use plain “O” cereal to simplify and focus on counting.

2. Divide box/paper up. We had 6 colors in our cereal, so we made 6 squares in our box.

3. Color in squares to correspond with cereal colors.

4. Cut holes in paper towel roll and thread pipe cleaners through. I used 1 pipe cleaner for 2 holes to help with stability.

Clean up

1 minute

1. Throw away leftover cereal and paper towel roll. My kids loved the colored box and requested to play with it.

We rolled to see who would go first (highest number). I like to change up how we determine who goes first and avoid youngest always going first. Sometimes we do backwards alphabetical, tallest, longest hair, etc. This helps the kids recognize differences and similarities to others and then they critically think through to find the answer. Depending on the activity, my husband and I are included in the ordering as well!

Roll the die and determine the number showing and the color it landed on. Six on a blue square means you find six blue cereal pieces and thread them on a pipe cleaner.

Optional rules:

• Coordinate pipe cleaners to colors of cereal (yellow on yellow, blue on blue, etc.). We did not play this way but will include it for my oldest next time.

• Our rule was all of the cereal from one turn had to be on the same pipe cleaner.

• We played a second time and added a rule that the color from the current turn couldn’t touch the same color from a previous turn, it had to touch a new color. Four yellows could not be stacked on a previous three yellows, they had to touch a different color. This rule added some complexity, but it provided good problem solving as the game progressed and the pipe cleaners started filling up.

We went around the circle quite a few times with lots of laughter and some arguing in between. Eventually we added a cup to shake the die and roll it out into the box instead of shaking the box. We kept having to chase the die and I was worried we would lose it.

We played outside because I love soaking up every second of summer possible and I thought the die shaking and rolling would get boisterous during the baby’s nap time. This could easily be done inside and would be perfect for a rainy or cold day.

There you have it! An activity that includes math, fine motor skills, turn taking, and color matching. Try it with your kids and comment below to let me know how it goes!