In Time to Create I talk about taking art activities outdoors as one way of stressing less about the mess. However less messy activities work just as well outdoors and today we set ourselves up on the picnic blanket in our backyard to do some threading. Threading is wonderful for fine motor development and our idea was to make sparkly mobiles to hang in our garden. Our treasure hunt through my craft room and the garage for ‘sparkly things’ ended up taking the form of ‘all sorts of things with holes which are good for threading!’
Taking our collection of all manner of bits and bobs, a spool of fine wire and a pair of scissors outside we were good to go. The stiffness of the wire makes threading into small holes easier for small fingers.
And now we have two lovely, quite sparkly mobiles. Simple to make, not messy at all and lovely hanging in the trees or from a verandah.
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Christie Burnett is a teacher, presenter, writer and the mother of two. She created Childhood 101 as a place for teachers and parents to access engaging, high quality learning ideas.
So THAT’s what I need to do with all the threading the Cappers gets through in the average week! Thanks love!! x
I’m planning a major de-clutter of the study Husband and I share these holidays. I now know what to do with all those outdated or unusable cds and dvds. Yay!
Keep some for me, I have more arty ideas up my sleeve 😉
I love these sparkly mobiles!
Threading is such a lovely activity; my two still find it quite fiddly. On Valentine’s Day we used heart shaped mini baked pretzels for threading beads. Very easy and very edible. I’ve put the link here if you fancy a quick look at what they did…
http://home-adventurer.blogspot.com/2011/02/one-year-on.html
That’s an ingenious idea!! time for me & my girl to get started 🙂 Thanks.
Pretty and fun! I have been wanting to make a wind chime. Do you think I could add some chimes on the bottom of the mobile??
Chimes would be great. I also thought that some preloved silverware would be fun and if you hung the strands close together they would bump and chime I am sure 🙂
I love these! So beautiful and bright. I’d love to make some with my boys– thanks for the idea!
These are beautiful and each one is unique. Love them. Great motor skill development. 🙂
Doots loves to thread. I love the way it engrosses her but she is still available for chatting – leaving me free to do something else (knitting!) and we can chat to each other while working side by side. I like the wire tip – we usually go for yarn and a needle, but I do have some wire somewhere…
Great idea! I bet the kids loved having their hard work displayed, too!
beautiful pictures!! and i love, love, love the use of recycled materials.
wow lovely mobiles 🙂 I want to try this out with my daughter, thanks for sharing! great idea to do all the creating outdoors as well
Very nice idea! Your mobiles look fantastic!
Beautiful. I’m so adding these to the list of things to make for our fairy garden.
definitely going to try these sometime soon.
your blog is filled with inspirational activities.
thank you Christie ♥