Do you remember pony beads from growing up?? If you’re like me you LOVED doing all different kinds of fun activities with them, and your little one will love them too!
Here are some fun and easy ways you can use pony beads. Note: pony beads & all of these other supplies can be found at The Dollar Tree or Michaels 🙂
- Color sorting – pour some beads onto a paper plate, grab an empty ice cube tray, and let your little one sort the beads. Whether she uses her fingers or tweezers, either way will strengthen her hands and keep her occupied:) I am using a basic pack with 6 translucent colors, but there are solid, glittery, and different sized pony beads you can also throw into the mix.
- Trace, cover, or create letters/ words with the pony beads. This is on the harder side and takes some more concentration (I would just use fingers for this), depending on the size of the letters. You can do like I did and grab a letter or number puzzle (thanks, Dollar Tree) or magnetic letters/numbers and have your little one place the beads directly on top of the letters or on the paper below them. You can also simply draw the letter(s) out on a piece of paper for your little one and let him place the beads on that.
- Make bracelets, with or without patterns. Take a pipe cleaner and make a small circle at the end and twist it closed. This will ensure the beads stay on the bracelet as they’re being strung and also give a loop for fastening the bracelet. Your little one can put the beads however she wants: with or without a pattern (note: a post on patterning is coming soon!)
- Play a math game! In this picture I’m using a die and a hundreds chart (there will be one available as a freebie in my TPT store). For a single player simply have your little one roll the die, then put a bead in the corresponding number of boxes until the hundreds chart is filled. For 2 or more players, have each player pick a bead color and build on to the previous player’s bead “chain”.
- Make a pony bead collage/ picture by sticking the beads onto flattened playdough! You could also roll/ hide pony beads in a ball of playdough and have your little one dig them out;)
