Get ready for hands-on fun inside the classroom with these 15 pool noodle activities that TEACH preschoolers, pre-k, and kindergarten students! Grab some pool noodles from your local dollar store, and get ready to have some fun while learning! Students will be developing fine motor, literacy, and mathematic skills with these fun games made with just a few supplies and some pool noodles! Need more summer fun ideas? Grab the Summer Math and Literacy Centers or the Little Learners Science Unit All About Ramps!
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Pool Noodle Prep
Prep Your Pool Noodles! Grab a knife and cutting board, and you are ready to prep! I like to cut mine into 1-2 inch pieces and store them in a plastic tub. Also, longer pieces can be cut in half vertically to be used for ramps or with golf tees. Make sure you keep some pool noodles for gross motor activities, too. Cut the pool noodle in half, and you have soft hockey sticks and pieces to create obstacle courses with.
Literacy Pool Noodle Activities
Pool Noodle Letter Match! Use a permanent marker to write a capital letter on one piece and a lowercase on another. Throw them all in a container and have students match the letters to their partners. Students can use tongs to grab the pieces to increase fine motor skills.
Pool Noodle Words! Use the letter noodle pieces from above, but make it more challenging by having students spell words with the letters. They can work on sight words, their names, or vocabulary words for a theme or study.Â
Math Pool Noodle Activities
Pool Noodle Color Match! Students can practice matching colors by using tongs or tweezers to place pom poms into the middle part of the pool noodle. Students are practicing counting, one-to-one correspondence, fine motor, and hand-eye coordination all in this one activity!
Pool Noodle Number Match! Draw dots, ten frames, or objects on your pool noodle pieces, and then write corresponding numbers. Students will count and match while working on fine motor, number recognition, one-to-one correspondence, and more!
Pool Noodle Count! Use popsicle sticks and foam to make number flags and stick in the pool noodle pieces. I put mine in a water table so the boats would float around. Students will gather small manipulatives from under the water to place on each boat to match the numbers. If you don’t want to use a water table, that’s totally ok too. Just place this activity in the tray for students to do at a table.
Pool Noodle Patterns! I placed everything in a water table, but that isn’t necessary for this activity to be fun! Little learners will grab the pieces and stack the pool noodle pieces in pattern towers. Practice AB, AAB, ABB, or ABC patterns with just a few supplies!
Science, STEM, and Art Pool Noodle Activities
Pool Noodle Ramps! Students will love making ramps with pool noodle pieces! Grab the I Can Build cards in the STEM Summer I Can Build Set. You can use marbles, small cars, or any other rolling manipulative to use on your ramps. Students can build bridges, roller coasters, mazes, ramps, or anything they imagine with the pool noodles!
Check out my Little Learners Science Unit All About Ramps for more hands-on activities for little learners!
Pool Noodle Sculptures with Pipe Cleaners! Turn your little learners into 3D artists with just 2 items: pool noodle pieces and pipe cleaners. The pipe cleaners are easy to push into the pool noodles, and students can get creative and build 3D masterpieces. The best part is they can pill out the pipe cleaners, and another friend can create again.
Pool Noodle Sculptures with Toothpicks! Here is another idea for pool noodle sculptures: toothpicks and noodle pieces. Give students a STEM challenge, or let their imaginations go wild with these two cheap items! The toothpicks go into the pool noodles easily and are a great fine motor activity!
Pool Noodle Sculptures! Make even more sculptures with pool noodle pieces, shaving cream, and little people manipulatives. The shaving cream acts like glue for the foam pieces, and students can build all kinds of structures for the people to live in. Use any counter students love to pick a counter or small manipulative to match your learning theme. Bonus: everything washes right off in no time!
Pool Noodle Water Play! Cool off with water play! Set up an area and put pool noodle pieces, funnels, cups, and toys for hours of fun! Place pool noodles that are different lengths with different size funnels. Add color to your water to make it even more unique. Students will practice hand-eye coordination while pouring, explore forces with the water movement, and several other science skills in this simple pool noodle activity!
Fine Motor Pool Noodle Activities
Pool Noodle Lacing! Grab some ribbon and pool noodle pieces for an excellent lacing project for little learners. I used ribbon because it was larger and easier for little hands to hold on to, but any string will do. Students can practice color sorting by only stringing one color or pattern by making strings of patterns using different colors.Â
Pool Noodle Construction! Use the pieces that are cut vertically so the pool noodle lays flat. Students will use a little hammer to drive the golf tees into the foam. This is wonderful for fine motor strength, hand-eye coordination, and spatial reasoning skills.
Gross Motor Pool Noodle Activities
Pool Noodle Obstacle Course! Use full, uncut noodles to make an obstacle course in the room. This is a great activity to develop gross motor muscles and get your students active in an organized activity. Pool noodle obstacle courses are also great for indoor recess!
Pool Noodle Hockey! Gather 2 laundry baskets, a beach ball, and pool noodles to create a fun pool noodle hockey game! Students use the pool noodles to hit the beach ball into the other team’s laundry basket. This is a ton of fun for indoor recess, too!
Organization
Gross Motor Pool Noodle Storage! Store the larger pool noodles and beach balls used for gross motor activities in a large mesh bag so it is handy when you have indoor recess or need a fun activity to get your students up and moving! I found these mesh laundry bags at the dollar store.
Add pool noodles to your shopping list today and have fun learning tomorrow with these 15 engaging games for preschool, pre-k, or kindergarten students! These activities aren’t just for summer and your students will love when you get these supplies out!
Check out the following posts for more engaging and hands-on activities for little learners! Click on the picture to visit that post.
Grab the entire math bundle for little learners to be set for the year!
Check out the letter mat bundle to get tons of hands-on resources to practice the alphabet!
Want to see the pool noodle activities in action? Check out the video.
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I’m Jackie, your go-to girl for early childhood inspiration and research-based curriculum.
