Have you ever purchased one of those big balls of rubber bands and thought to yourself, "What am I going to do with all of these?" As a matter of fact, there is more than one purpose for rubber bands other than for office use. Through the activity, children are able to use those extra rubber bands and also other objects that you find around the house that can help build their fine motor skills.
During this activity, children will develop:
- Fine motor skills - for those future writers!!
- Eye-hand coordination
- Math skills that help children recognize colors and sizes.
- Patience!
What will you need to make this fun activity:
- First and foremost, you must collect a variety of rubber bands to make this activity work. As I mentioned before, I had one of those giant balls of colorful rubber bands sitting around my house that I rarely used. All you need is a few rubber bands from the ball, I prefer some that are similar in size with maybe a few that vary in size.
- Plastic lids of different sizes
Basically, there are no steps in making this activity. You are able to engage in this activity with your child the moment you are able to gather the materials. Just give your child the pile of rubber bands with the lids and encourage him or her to start stretching the rubber bands over the lids. To make it easier, you can cut slits in the sides of the lids to help the rubber bands fit more securely, but WARNING - that may leave sharp edges! In addition, discuss with your child the different colors of rubber bands as well as the different sizes. Building their math vocabulary through this activity is an extra bonus!
Extension Idea:
Rubber bands can basically fit around anything, plus if you want to make the activity easier for younger children, you might want to find different objects. Other great items to collect include plastic juice jugs, yogurt containers, cups, etc. Again, these items are also very easy to collect, plus it puts your recyclables to great use!
