• Color pastry chefs

 The only thing needed are an eggbeater and some pom poms.

Put as many pom poms as possible inside the eggbeater. Give it to your toddlers and let them explore it and try to take the pom poms out of it, on their own finding their own solutions. If your children are a little older, you can alternatively ask them to find and take out only the pom poms of a specific color.

Practiced skills: Fine motor, visual – motor coordination, focusing enhancement, observation, color identification, problem solving.

• Feed the piglet

 You will need one shoe box, a pair of scissors and some colors. Paint the box in pink color with your child. Continue with drawing two little ears, two eyes, one piggy nose and a big mouth, on the bottom of the box. Then, use the scissors to cut the mouth and create a hole. Feed the piglet with the pom poms.

Practiced skills: enhancement of imagination, fine motor, visual – motor coordination, symbolic game.

• The rainbow box

 You will need a carton box, a pair of scissors and pom poms of different colors and two different sizes.Use your scissors to cut some round -shaped holes of the two pom pom sizes, on the box. Then color around the holes, using the same colors as the pom poms’. We let the toddler put the pom poms in the holes. We allow experimentation with the texture and trial and error by putting the pom poms in random holes, until the solution is found. After the toddler has become more familiar with the activity, we give motivation for putting each colorful pom pom in the hole with the same color.

Practiced skills:  Fine motor, visual – motor coordination, focusing enhancement, color identification, observation, problem solving, introduction to the concept of sizes, logical thinking.

• Small and big caterpillars

You will need clothespins, straws, silicone glue and silicone pistol, pom poms of two sizes and optionally, small eyes for handicrafts or buttons and beads. Ask the children to help you stick a big- sized pom pom on the upside of the clothespin or on the straw, using the silicone glue. Then, stick two little eyes on the pom pom and continue adding smaller pom poms under the bigger one, till you cover the whole surface. Repeat this for every single clothespin or straw. Once your caterpillars are ready, you can use them in symbolic games, you can compare them according to their sizes, you can talk about the caterpillar’s circle of life and of course, you can decorate your children’s room with them.

Practiced skills: New information, imagination, fine motor, creativity, cooperation, introduction to the concept of sizes.

• Colorful cases

In this activity, you will need a carton case for eggs, tongs, colors, a box and some pom poms. First, color the case. For each space of the case, use the different colors of the pom poms and let the children help you. Put all the pom poms in the box, next to the egg case. The children have to grab every single pom pom, using the tongs and put them in the cases with the same color.

 Practiced skills:  Fine motor, visual – motor coordination, focusing enhancement, color identification, observatiοn, problem solving, logical thinking.

• My caterpillar – friend

 For this game, you will need some blank pages of paper, a pair of scissors, glue, a few plastic bottle  lids, colors and colorful pom poms.   Use a blank page to draw a round, smiling face. Stick five bottle lids the one next to the other, just next to the face, so as to create the shape of a caterpillar. Optionally, you can draw antennae on its head and small feet under the lids. Then, take another piece of paper, fold it three times and cut it into eight pieces, using the scissors. On each piece, draw five (same or different) shapes, the one next to the other.  After that, every single shape with the same colors as the pom poms. This is how you create the cards of this game. You can also repeat this process, if you want to create a bigger number of cards.

 When you want to start playing the game, show a card to the child and direct them to put the pom poms into the plastic lids on the caterpillar’s  body, according to the colors shown on the card. You can adjust the game, depending on the developmental stage of the children by increasing or reducing the number of lids on the caterpillar’s body and the number of the colorful shapes on the cards. You can additionally use an hourglass, so as to trigger the children to put the correct color of pom pom into the right place, in a specific timeframe.

 Practiced skills:  Fine motor, visual – motor coordination, focusing enhancement, color identification, observatiοn, problem solving, imagination, reproduction from a model, speed working logical thinking.