Pom Pom Play- Toddler Task Thursday #3
Today I want to talk to you about a new Toddler Task on the blog, involving pom poms. You know those little annoying craft pom poms? Think cotton ball on color and pizazz steroids… Picturing it? Great! Well, it turns out that those lovely little colorful pom poms aren’t just for crafts, but also can be used for a plethora of activities that your Toddler is sure to love. Not only will they enjoy it, but the developmental benefits are fantastic too! Which, is a win-win for us when it comes to Toddler Tasks.
*** DISCLAIMER *** Playing is AWESOME, but depending on the age of your child and the size of the pom poms you use, you may need to keep an eye on them… You can’t say I didn’t warn you. 🙂 In addition, if you have cats, make sure that all pom poms are accounted for at the end or you might see them floating around with your cat enjoying the activity too! Okay, back to the fun….
Here are some benefits of playing with pom poms:
- Sensory Play- The Pom Poms you use will likely have different textures, be different sizes, and have a different feel to them. This is a great sensory activity for your Toddler! There are many benefits of sensory play for children. One unexpected benefit I have witnessed with Millie is the way sensory play has impacted her language development. She is able to describe what she is feeling, doing, and seeing and I didn’t expect this additional bonus!
- Fine Motor Skills– Fine Motor Skills is the coordination of small muscles in movements. The way hands, fingers, and eyes work together to build these skills will be really present in the activities and extensions below.
- Pincer Grasp– A Pincer Grasp is when a child uses the very tips of their fingers to pick up objects. Picking up the pom poms is a great practice for pincer grasp!
- Hand Strength– We listed this one with stickers too, but the truth is that our hand strength is developed from small muscles developing. By using and working those small muscles, it will have a large impact on hand strength down the road. Think about the stamina needed for kids to color, hold a pencil, etc. These types of muscles will be strengthened by strengthening the smaller muscles first.
- Color Recognition-When we first began playing with Pom Poms, we were doing just that… playing. Naturally, Millie began to separate and play with the Pom Poms in ways of her own. One way that I was surprised about was how she naturally would play and group them by color, size, or even by texture. Playing with Pom Poms is a great way to boost color recognition in younger kids!
- Creativity- Depending on how the child plays and how activities are structured, there is a lot of room for the development of creativity here!
- Problem Solving- As toddlers try to grab the Pom Poms and complete the activity, there are going to be issues that arise. How can they solve this? What do they do? Practicing problem solving skills at this small level, will help them with larger problems as they get older.
- Counting- Just like I mentioned above with color recognition, Millie also began to count the pom poms as she was playing. She might sort the pom poms either by color or size and then she would count to see how many were there. Now, Millie is 2.5 and her counting skills are not perfect, but watching her attempt to count that high AND to see that she was forming the beginning understandings of number sense and how numbers mean something was amazing.
- Patience- Some of these activities can be challenging for toddlers at first. Trying to get them exactly where they want them, navigating the fine motor skills required… it all takes a practice in patience at first, and for toddlers this is a great skill to develop!
- Spatial Awareness- Depending on the activity, the spatial awareness that a toddler develops to tackle the movement of the Pom Poms is a great practice and one that may test their patience at first.
There are LOTS of ways that toddlers can play with Pom Poms. This is certainly not an exhaustive list, but some of the ways that Millie has loved the most! I hope they are helpful and fun for you/your Toddler too! Here are some of Millie’s favorite ways to play with Pom Poms right now:
- Empty Paper Towel/Wrapping Paper/Toilet Paper Tubes– This activity can be structured in LOTS of ways. One way that we do this activity is by taping the rolls to the wall to either create different “lanes” or so that they naturally link together to go down all of the tubes. We typically put containers at the bottom to catch the Pom Poms and Millie loves counting to see how many she got in the container. It is a lot of fun to watch. Unfortunately, I don’t have pictures of our biggest mazes and tube lanes, but I included one of our very first incredibly simple attempts that Millie loved!
- Extend the Activity– One way to extend this activity is to allow your Toddler to pick the way that the tubes are on the wall. This is a great practice for older Toddlers with problem solving to see how they try to figure out how to get the Pom Poms to reach the container at the bottom. Another way is to have two lanes and to make it a game to see who can get more in the container or who can get them into the container faster. Lots of ways to extend this activity!
- Fill the Basket Holes- For this activity you need a basket with circular holes. We have a plastic basket from the Dollar Store that works well for this activity but I have also seen smaller hampers used for this one too. Ideally, you want the holes to be about the size of the Pom Poms. This allows your Toddler to practice pushing the Pom Poms into the basket, but also they will naturally start trying to get them to stay inside the hole. If the holes of the basket are too big this won’t work for them. Right now, Millie LOVES to put things into containers or bags or bins, so this activity is right up her alley. Along with this, she also LOVES to dump things out. Win win!
- Extend the Activity- One way to extend this activity I mentioned above by encouraging your toddler to try and see if they can get the Pom Pom to stay inside the hole and fill all of the holes in the basket. You could also use this as a sorting activity!
- Color Sort- By far, Millie’s favorite thing right now is to sort and put the Pom Poms into their right color bin. We actually have a set of colored containers that used to be from when I did the 21 Day Fix forever ago! They are the PERFECT container set for little hands and coincidentally are great for the color Pom Poms we have to do this activity.
- Extend the Activity- One way to extend this activity is to use tweezers or tongs to pick up the Pom Poms. Millie has a small plastic set of tweezers that came with a bug finding kit from the Dollar Store and they were a perfect tool for this activity. We have also used a small set of tongs that I have from Pampered Chef that are just the right size for her. Watching her hands learning just how to hold them so that she could grab the Pom Poms was awesome. This was great for spatial awareness and coordination too because she had to keep them squeezed until she got to the bin to drop them.
- Straw Play- One way to make these activities a little different or create a whole new one is to use straws to move the Pom Poms. We have had Pom Pom races before with the straws to move the Pom Poms along a line (painter’s tape is a great tool for this) but we have also used them with the tube idea above. Instead of taping the tubes to the wall we have just put the tube on the ground and tried to blow the Pom Pom through the tube with the straw. For this one I recommend using the toilet paper roll so that your toddler has fun and doesn’t get too frustrated!
- Whisk Pom Pom Play- Another fun activity is to push the Pom Poms through a whisk so that they settle inside the whisk. Millie always thinks this one is SO fun and then tries to shake it to get them back out. A great problem solving and fun activity!
Other options?
There are SO many ways that you can incorporate Pom Poms into play. We do toy rotations at our house (look for a post about that in the future) and when the Pom Pom bin makes an appearance again, Millie is always super excited. They are something that keeps her involved in the play and holds her attention span for a considerable amount of time and I am always impressed at how long she plays and enjoys playing with them.
Have you tried any Pom Pom Activities? What are your favorites? Tell us below!
*** Toddler Tasks Thursday is a series devoted to highlighting activities and fun ways that Toddlers can learn through play. Toddlers are busy and haven’t developed a long attention span to most things yet. Finding creative play-based activities or tasks that work on building specific skill sets, while allowing the brain to do what it does best… learn through play is the goal of Toddler Tasks Thursday. Child Development experts say that typically a reasonable expectation of attention span is two to three minutes for each year of life. So, if your child was 2 years old a reasonable expectation for attention span is 4-6 minutes. ***
Here’s to pursuing a present, simple life by living intently and always remembering what matters and what doesn’t. Remember to give yourself grace and permission to enjoy the journey. I’m always in your corner, cheering you on, and pulling for you friend!
With love always, Madison
