What’s the 5 o’clock hour like in your house (a.k.a. “the witching hour”)? I know my kids like to be glued to my legs while I get dinner ready, so I have a great go-to list of 10 activities to keep your toddler busy while you cook dinner, but we came up with another one the other day that both my boys loved! These soup can creatures are fun, creative, and simple!
Supplies
- Cans (they can be tuna cans, soup cans, or really any can for that matter!)
- Magnets
- Pom poms
- Rubberbands
I should say that the reason this was a “quick” activity to throw together was because we already had the pom-pom magnets made (see one way we use them here). If you have them made ahead of time, this will be very simple to put together when you need to occupy the kids for a bit. To make them I just hot glued the magnets (we are using very strong ones!) on the back of the poms and that’s it, they are ready to use immediately!
Cannon was first pretty amazed at how strong the magnets were, “they stick together like snakes!” he exclaimed! We used them to make arms, crazy hair, antennae, and eyes!
Hunter wanted LOTS of rubber bands on his cans (he needed help with this), while Cannon used the rubber bands to make mouths for his creatures. They looked pretty cool!
The boys piled “hair” on the tops of the cans, added “antennae,” and had lots of pretend play! Little kids pretend voices are just so darn cute 🙂 This activity inspired so much creative and imaginative play, but there were also fine motor skills being worked as they put rubber bands around cans and they investigated the curious power of magnets sticking to things, so lots of skills were covered in this one simple activity!
How do you think your preschooler would enjoy this activity? Let us know in the comments below!