Simple activities and crafts to do with cotton balls.

A child’s eyes light up when he or she sees something common used in a new way. Common objects like a cotton balls become a source of fun and exploratory learning. If you start playing simple surprise games with common household objects, your child will begin to look for creative connections in other parts of her daily activities. That is, she’ll learn, by following your lead, to think of multiple uses for one object—a key concept for good critical thinking…and it’s fun and virtually free. Here are a couple of ideas with cotton balls:

Cotton Ball Soccer

• Ask your child to join you at a table and bring two straws and one cotton ball.
• Give your child one of the straws. Ask her to stand at the table and across from you.
• Place the cotton ball on the table in front of you.
• Point the straw at the cotton ball and gently blow until the cotton ball moves across the table to your child.
• Ask your child to “pass” the ball back to you.
• If you have a toddler, simply put the cotton ball on the table, or other hard surface, and let her blow it onto a target, such as a piece of paper, with or without using a straw.

Cotton Ball Sculpting

• Mix a cup (8 ounces or 250 ml) of water with a cup of flour until it becomes a smooth paste.
• Cover a cookie sheet with aluminum foil.
• Dip cotton balls in the paste until they are completely coated.
• Place the pasty cotton balls on the foil-covered cookie sheet in a fun pattern—such as, snowmen, letters, caterpillars, and snakes.

• Bake your creation in the oven at 325 degrees  (160 Celsius) for 20-60 minutes until hard and lightly browned.
• Cool for 10 minutes, and then carefully remove your sculpture from the foil.

As you can see, the suggestions above are just old-fashioned fun. Fun that brings you and your child closer together and shows your child that one thing can have many, enjoyable purposes.

By Anne Oxenreider

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