This colorful cardboard and pipe cleaner craft is such a fun way to sneak a little learning into playtime! Made with simple supplies like recycled cardboard, colorful pipe cleaners, and pony beads, it’s an easy activity for toddlers and preschoolers that encourages creativity while keeping little hands busy.
Supplies Needed
- Cardboard cut into a circle
- a marker to draw the face
- hole punch
- scissors
- colorful pipe cleaners
- matching colorful pony beads
Simply use a hole punch to make a few holes along the top of the cardboard head and thread colorful pipe cleaners through and twist to secure to create wild and wacky hair. Kids can give their cardboard face a silly smile, funny eyes, freckles, or any personality they can dream up.
Your little learners can practice color recognition, sorting, patterns, and counting as they decorate each strand with colorful beads. It’s also a great fine motor activity, since threading the beads onto the fuzzy pipe cleaners helps little ones practice hand-eye coordination and those important finger skills.
Best of all, there’s no right or wrong way to make this cool project! Preschoolers can create rainbow hair, match beads to each pipe cleaner, make repeating patterns, or pile on whatever colors they like. It’s an inexpensive learning activity that turns a scrap of cardboard into something cute, colorful, and surprisingly entertaining.
Helpful Tips
- Once your pipe cleaners are secured to the cardboard, trim them down to a more manageable length to make decorating and adding beads easier.
- We added 7 colorful strands of hair, but you can add as many as you’d like! Use whatever pipe cleaner colors you have on hand, repeat your favorites, or add extra strands for an even fuller head of crazy hair.
- Make this fun craft even more exciting by adding extra decorations! I’m thinking googly eyes, colorful markers, and rhinestone earrings…
Worried your little one might be tempted to put the beads in their mouth? This project definitely requires adult supervision for younger toddlers. You could also try something edible such as Cheerios or Fruit Loops!
