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One Item Activity: Clothespins

 No prep, one item activity for kids using clothespins! Fine motor skills, creativity, engineering exploration for preschoolers and school age kids shared at The Stay-at-Home-Mom Survival Guide.

Need an a activity for preschoolers and school aged kids that involves no prep? This is one that will work!


Jamie at hands on: as we grow inspired me to think up a whole list of one item activities that require zero prep time when she shared a clever fine motor activity using paper clips. It is genius! 
I decided to give the kids my clothespins to explore. Yep, clothespins! This is my first installment in a new group of activities I am calling the “One Item Activity” Series. They are created using items or locations that we all have access to, and require minimal to no preparation time.

Clothespin activity for preschoolers and school age kids.
I set out my coffee can of wooden clothespins (the kind with the spring in the middle) that I have had since my days teaching. My 6 year old asked, “What can we do with these?” I responded, “What ideas can you think of?” Here is what they came up with:

My oldest boy decided to clip the clothespins around the plastic lid of the coffee can. He placed them all around and then said he made a cake. From that point, my 6 year old and 3 year old made a “chain” of clothespins clipping them together to make the chain as long as they could.

We counted the clothespins as they clipped them together. They made shapes with them as well. All-in-all, my son and daughter spent about 30 minutes exploring, pinching, and connecting the clothespins. You can always add other craft or play items into the activity as well so extend-construction paper, pieces of ribbon, an empty egg carton. There are always more possibilites!

After this, my two oldest were back to playing with our set of DIY jumbo building blocks. I guess those count as a “One Item” Activity too! Of course there are so many ways to use clothespins in learning activities. I have quite a few pinned to my Preschool Activities board on Pinterest.





Do you have any one item activity ideas that have been interesting to your children? 
Share them below so we can all try them!


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Until the next time,
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