Pipe Cleaner Matching Game

Here is another great, easy, cheap activity I put together for our upcoming road trip. The activity simply involves sticking the pipe cleaners through the holes. For older kids it can also be a color matching game (stick the correctly colored pipe cleaner through its coordinating hole.) I found the idea for this here.

 

In order to make this for your own toddler, take an old canister (chip or oatmeal containers work great) and pop holes in the top. I found using a pen or thick nail worked much better than a knife. Add reinforcement labels to each hole and color them if desired. Since my daughter is so young my final step was to fold each pipe cleaner in half to make it easier for her. Easy right?

I also went a step further and covered my container in material. I would have used paper, but this is what I had on hand and I didn't want to buy anything. I hemmed two sides using my sewing machine, glued the top hem to the top of the cannister using hot glue, and glued the side hem over the side raw edge. On the bottom I made cuts every few inches in order to glue down smoothly.

Honestly, my sixteen-month old has a hard time doing this. She does try really hard and it holds her attention for a while, but it isn't easy for her. I don't think it will be too much longer that she will be able to fully enjoy this though.