Living in the 21st century, pool noodles are no longer as exciting for their intended use. People have gotten more creative with this amazing invention, particular for use in fun toddler activities.
There are tons of creative ideas for pool noodles nowadays. They’re so affordable and easy to find in the summer, only $1 at the dollar store or in bulk online. When cut into smaller strips, the opportunities for their use become endless.
With one main tool, the pool noodle, we can have loads of fun with exciting and educational toddler activities. In this post, I’ve included a list of 50 toddler activities using pool noodles.
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How Does One Cut A Pool Noodle?
Whether you’re cutting them in half, into several slices of identical or varying sizes, into a spiral, or lenghtwise, cutting them is fairly easy.
A kitchen knife or utility knife will do the trick. Just watch those precious fingers!
50 Creative Pool Noodle Uses for Toddlers
Here are 50 ideas for creative toddler activities ideal for toddlers broken down into categories.
- Fine Motor
- Sensory
- Educational
- Crafts
- Large-Scale Uses
Of this list, the majority of these activity ideas require the pool noodles to be cut into slices, some cut across lengthwise, and some used halved or whole.
You may also need additional things for these activities such as string, tape, pom poms, pipe cleaners, popsicle sticks, pegs, a sharpie, plastic bin, sand, water, marble, or toy cars.
Fine Motor Activities
- Necklace threading
- Tweezers and pom poms
- Poking objects through with pipe cleaners or popsicle sticks
- Hammer practice with golf tees as pegs and mallets
- Stacking blocks for tower building
- Detail structure building with toothpicks
Sensory Activities
- Sensory bin with sand, rocks, and pebbles
- Water sensory bin
- Bath or water table toys
- Sailboats (with straws and foam sheet sails)
- Water tunnel/water wall
- Sound exploration tube
Educational Activities
- Color sorting
- Letters or numbers recognition
- Letter or number matching
- Spelling and name recognition activities
- Alphabetical order and counting
- Addition and subtraction stacking
- Geometric shape building
- Physics experiment – connected to strings for weights and balance
Crafts
- Lightsaber
- Flower garden
- Monster sculpture
- Animal creatures
- Stamp
- Wreath base
- Pom pom shooter
- Water blaster
- Catapult
- Telescope
- Building cities
- Small or large raft
- Racquet
- Abacus
- Garland
Large-Scale Uses
- Large-scale street/lane obstacle
- Marble run
- Race track for toy cars
- Swimming
- Bat/hockey stick
- Goal structure
- Croquet hoops
- Sprinkler
- Car wash structure
- Hurdle obstacle course
- Rings obstacle course
- Weave obstacle course
- Ring toss
- Ring target
- Bed bumper
The kids and I are working on going through the majority of this list so stay tuned for more pictures and tutorials.
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My name is Paula and I’m a mom of two scrumptious cuties. Thanks Mommy Blog became a project for me to help guide other new moms and current moms through any of my own personal experiences and struggles. My hobbies include singing, doing jigsaw puzzles, baking, designing and trying to stay creative.
Wow who knew there were so many uses for a pool noodle! Thanks for sharing 🙂
Oh wow I am SO trying some of these now that winter is here and we have no use for our pool noodles right now 😂
Didn’t realise there were so many uses. Can’t wait to try some with my little o e.
Love the sensory play ideas!
These are great! We’ve done a few of these before… I still have little noodle slices all over the house, but the kids LOVE putting them in the pool!