Pipe Cleaner Poking Toy - Fine Motor Activity

Our fun boxes have been such a hit with Margaret, I decided to make a few toys and activities up to add to the boxes here and there as their contents start to feel stale. The other night, my kids were worn out from a visit with Nana and were in bed by 6 PM! It gave me the perfect opportunity to go on a toy crafting frenzy. Over the next 2 weeks, I'll share some of the toys I made. Most of them are fine-motor activities, because those tend to be the sort Margaret's most drawn to.

Today I'll start with what I believe will be Meg's favorite: pipe cleaner poking. This is an activity I saw popping up all over the ECE blogs I follow, and I knew she'd love it, based on our pipe cleaner colander play.

I used an empty Up&Up baby puffs container for the base. I poked holes in the lid with a metal barbecue skewer, placed a hole reinforcement sticker around each ring and colored it one of the pipe cleaner colors, and added an alphabet sticker title to the side (coated with Mod Podge for durability) just to fancy it up a bit.

The child pokes the pipe cleaners through the color-coded holes into the empty container. The container can be used to store the pipe cleaners in between uses. Simple, engaging, inexpensive - my kind of toy.