Has anyone else been cleaning out their pantry this month? I’ve been trying to get organized and also use up items that are close to becoming expired. I found half of a box of Fruit Loops hiding in the top of our pantry. Of course they were pretty stale. We had a long weekend coming up so I decided use them for some activities for my preschooler. They are all really simple and great for building fine motor skills.
FRUIT LOOP NAME ACTIVITY
I had a teacher conference this month with Graylie’s preschool and found out that they don’t really teach lower case letters. However they are working with them on spelling and writing their name using these letters. Since they just started this, I decided to do a name activity with her to help reinforce what they are learning at school.
We had all the supplies for this on hand. You only need a piece of cardstock and glue in addition to the fruit loops. I began by writing her name on the cardstock with the glue.
Then I asked her to place the fruit loops onto the glue. We talked about how this was her name and what the letters were. She did a great job and decided to do one color per letter. This was not required but I thought it was a great idea. You could even ask the child to do a pattern.
FRUIT LOOP TOWERS
This activity is very similar to the Bead Towers we did last year. We really enjoyed that so I knew this would be a hit. I was able to use some play dough we had made over the holidays. I made six balls with the play dough and placed them in a plastic tray. You will want to press them down on the tray so that the bottom stays flat. Otherwise the play dough balls might roll around the tray and frustrate your preschooler.
Then I secured a dry spaghetti noodle in the middle of each play dough ball. Once this was set up, I asked her to place the fruit loops on the noodles and build towers. She was able to do mostly one color on each noodle but a few random ones did sneak in.
FRUIT LOOP BIRD FEEDER
This activity is great even if you don’t want to turn it into a bird feeder! My older son actually got really into this one too. You only need pipe cleaners and fruit loops. I shaped the pipe cleaners into hearts and had them thread on the fruit loops.
He decided to do a few of his own in different shapes. It always makes me happy when they take a craft in their own direction. Once they had the cereal threaded, I twisted the ends to hold it all into place. You could attach twine or string to this for hanging. We just hung them on the branches as they were.
These were all such easy activities! The best part was not having to purchasing any supplies. For those of you that are currently snowed in, I hope this gives you some ideas to do with your little ones. If you don’t have Fruit Loops, any O-shaped cereal will work.
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