Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Toothpaste Box Rattle Time

Toddler ages: 22 months, 22 months

Materials you'll need:
-empty toothpaste box
-tape
-beans

Not every activity will be a hit. What follows is an example of what wasn't.

I decided to make this project on my own, as the twins were too young to help, then give it to them to play with when it was completed. Plus, I didn't want them to know there were beans inside the toothpaste boxes as they would just try to tear them apart to get to them.

Directions:
Step 1: Pour a handful of beans into a toothpaste box.
Step 2: Tape both ends closed.

For the first five minutes, this activity was a dream come true. The twins shook and shook and ran down the hallway and shook some more. In the following photos, Twin B shook so fast that the naked eye could not see the toothpaste box rattle...




....but soon he tired and needed to rest...



Twin A enjoyed them just as much, but paced himself a little better...



During the 6th minute of this activity, Twin A began to realize that with diligent effort, the tape comes off...



...and proceeded to remove it...



When I tried to explain to him that he shouldn't remove the tape, he tried to replace it...



...but his heart wasn't in it, and soon the tape was undone, the box was opened, and the beans were all over the floor.

I believe this activity would have been better for the 3-year-old boy. So now you know. Thanks for listening.

Stay tuned for Edible Painting Time tomorrow!

7 comments:

  1. I love that he tried to put the tape back on! So sweet!

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  2. Whatever they do, they are so sweet, and you too in your efforts.
    I think you should have put a lot more tape, you know, like rounds and rounds, to discourage the opening. :-)
    You see, in the kindergarten they do something similar with small, plastic bottles, but again, a lot of tape.
    And if you put something small in it, like sand, and turn it upside down slowly you obtain a rain like sound.

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  3. Alessandra, I love your idea about the soda bottles. We could put beans or sand in them and I don't think the babies could open them. Maybe that will be the next activity!

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  4. Glue the cap, and put different things in them, seeds, pasta, beans, gravel....nice to see too, and colorful!
    And they can help with the funnel ;-)

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  5. I second the recommendation to put stuff in old soda (or water) bottles, with a glued on top. The daycare I take my kids to does this in their baby room, and the babies and toddlers just love to play with them.

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  6. Love the simplicity of this activity!
    Gave you a blog award for it at:
    http://quirkymomma.com/2010/fantastic-friday-1/

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  7. Wow, what a fantastic idea! I'm sad the tape came off as I'd love to try it myself... but the bottle idea in the comments sounds great, too.

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