Step-by-step tutorial
Step 1
Choose cereals that have holes in them, such as Cheerios or Fruit Loops, or "hole-y" pastas like penne. (We've dyed penne before to make this activity even more fun for the kids.)
Step 2
Cut straws into one-inch pieces and place them into a bowl.
Step 3
Have your child roll the Play-Doh into a ball. (Working with Play-Doh is a great way to build strength in little hands and get them ready for writing.) As we were doing this activity, I realized that we need to get some new Play-Doh. All of our current stash is currently this lovely shade of brown or gray.
Step 4
Push two or three pieces of spaghetti into the Play-Doh. Make sure to use spaghetti instead of angel hair pasta to make the towers a little sturdier. You'll also want to have some extras in case they break.
Step 5
Young kids love threading the different materials onto the spaghetti to create a colorful tower...
Step 6
...and older kids enjoy using materials to create patterns. As we were making the towers, one of my kids chanted "noodle, noodle, pink, noodle, noodle, pink..." to help him keep track of his pattern.
Step 7
You can also separate your "construction" materials by color and make each tower a different color.
Final result!
When the kids were finished, they toppled their towers over and started all over again. I was amazed at how long this simple activity kept the kids occupied!
