If you haven’t noticed yet, pool noodles are not just for summer time fun any more. It is hard for me to pass up a pool noodle that is on sale because I am always thinking, “I bet I could come up with one more thing to do with noodles this year that we haven’t done before!”…
Noodle Building
The wonderful thing about noodles is they are soft and light weight so they make a great tool for building and construction outdoors or indoors….
Noodle Geometry
We also explored making different shapes with our noodles.
Noodle Roads
And how about making a road or racetrack?
Noodle Parking Lot
Noodles can lead to all sorts of play with a little thinking outside the box…
Noodle Jumping
Noodles do invite some large motor play too like jumping…
Noodle Chains
Just cut up some noodles and you can make a noodle chain…
Noodle Blocks
Noodles make wonderful blocks. We used our noodles for sorting and stacking…
Noodle Water Play
I added a few noodles to our water play as well for a little exploration….
Noodle Painting
Noodle painting is a simple art process for young children to enjoy…
Noodle Marble Runs
Get your little engineers thinking and constructing their own marble runs too…
Yes, I will be stocking up on foam noodles again this year to see what else we can come up with!
Available on Amazon
Links to Grow On
Noodle Threading from I Can Teach My Child
Five Ways to use Pool Noodles on Dry Land from The Body Smart Blog
Noodle Puppets from Sippy Cup Central
Noodle Lacing and Patterning from My Little Gems
Noodle Flowers from No Time for Flashcards
Pool Noodle Light Saber from Frugal Fun for Boys
Pool Noodle Marble Run from Play Create and Explore
Pool Noodle Sculptures from Irresistible Ideas for Play Based Learning
18 Comments
What great ideas! I’ll be heading down to the Wal-Mart for some noodles!
I love the painting idea! I’ve been gathering ideas for fun objects to stamp with for my 3 year old. The water play looks fun too.
Don’t have pictures….. used flat adhesive foam shapes on small length of noodle to create a paint roller. Works best if both ends are left bare to use as handles.
Don’t forget, you can slice the noodles into rings and thread them with a shoe lace: fine motor skills, making patterns, write numbers on them and practice ordering numbers (increasing and decreasing, skip-counting, ect) or use letters (alphabet, to create CVC words, or CVCe words)
Oh- by the way – Dollar Tree (or similar stores) have noodles for a $1 each.
I love the marble run idea. I think we’ll have to try that one soon.
What great ideas!! I have been a preschool sub for the past two years and this fall is my first year as a full-time teacher. I am so excited and so happy that I found your site! What a wealth of information/ideas!
What did you use to cut the noodle in half to make the marble run? Love it!
Thanks!
Heidi Butkus
https://heidisongs.blogspot.com
Hello Heidi,
I used a sharp knife from my kitchen:) The noodles are super easy to slice and dice!
I love your site. Thanks for all your hard work. I have nominated your for a blog award.
Wow Amy! Thank you for nominating my blog for an award. I will stop by and take a look! Super sweet of you.
Deborah
You gave me some great ideas for increasing mileage out of one item. Thanks! 🙂
I love these ideas. I had seen some of these ideas posted on Teach Preschool previously, so when I finally had a chance to pick some up at dollar tree, I snapped up a bunch (I do not recommend navigating through the rest of the store with a double stroller and an armload of noodles, though). After reading an article in Disney Family Fun Magazine, I stuck wooden skewers (they recommended chop sticks) into the ground, and bent the noodles up into arches that my kids love to crawl through as a part of a backyard obstacle course. We incorporated our play tent and some hula hoops into our course. Some noodles were left loose, and the kids dragged those through the course as an added challenge. I planned to bring the noodles in when the weather turned cold, and turn them into marble runs and some of your other ideas, but now I think I’ll go back and get more, and hope for enough snow to experiment with chilly noodle fun!
Oh now you have me for sure planning to head back to the store for more noodles but I will keep your tip in mind and leave the double stroller at home:)
Oooh, what a lot of great ideas! I think I need to get some more pool noodles here!
Thats a great idea little kids thinking that they are engineers and constructing their own marble runs too and the idea of making noodles chain was great .
WOW! Great post! I had only done two of these activities… man, I really need to use my noodle more 🙂
I came across this site and thought you might like Canoodle. It’s a new, fun and innovative toy that utilizes noodles. It promotes imagination and creative thinking. Visit the website serranoventions.com to see more about Canoodle 🙂
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