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Daycare Center and Family Home Forum>What to Do With Drinking Straws?
SilverSabre25 08:36 AM 02-08-2015
I cleaned out a drawer today and have WAY more droning straws than necessary. Any ideas what I can do with them, craftwise?

Also little paper baking cups.
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CraftyMom 08:42 AM 02-08-2015
Originally Posted by SilverSabre25:
I cleaned out a drawer today and have WAY more droning straws than necessary. Any ideas what I can do with them, craftwise?

Also little paper baking cups.
The kids could cut them into pieces (depending on age) and string them on yarn.

Use them along with the 3 little pigs story to make houses made out of straw. Then see how easy it is to blow them down, lots of fun!
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CraftyMom 08:49 AM 02-08-2015
Here's an example of a house made from straw, just arrange the straws on a piece of construction paper. Then huff and puff and blow them down! You could also do toothpicks for a house made of sticks and large Legos for a house made of brick
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Crystal 08:56 AM 02-08-2015
Make a "wind" kit. add cotton balls, feathers, balloons, marbles, etc Children can hypothesize about which item the "wind" will move faster/easiest and how much force of the "wind" it will take to move each item. Then provide straws and have them blow from a starting point to an end point. Time to see if their guesses were correct. You can also use an electric fan and blow dryer and let the children guess and test which will provide more wind and move items faster.

Cut straws into about 1 inch pieces. Add yarn and they can be used as a lacing activity and to make necklaces/bracelets. Pieces can also be added to collage supplies.

Cups can be used to build towers. You can also use them for sorting items, add pebbles of different colors, beads, etc. for the children to sort.
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Laurel 10:26 AM 02-08-2015
If they are old enough for scissors it is fun for them to cut plastic straws because when you cut them into shorter pieces they kind of fly. They like to cut them and watch them fly. Then they can string them afterwards.

You can also give them a straw and a glass with a little water in it. They like to blow into the straw and make bubbles.

Or give them a straw and some cotton balls. Show them how to suck in so the cotton ball stays on the end of the straw and see if they can transfer the cotton ball into a dish using this method. Then they can count the number of balls that they successfully transferred to the dish.

Short pieces of straw can be used with playdough. They can just stick them in the play dough or press them down on it and the straw will fill up with play dough. Then they can squeeze the straw and the dough comes back out. Just make sure the straws aren't very long or it will be too frustrating.

With things like that, I would sometimes just set them out and let them do what they want with them. They never ceased to amaze me with ideas that they would come up with.

Baking cups are good to put beads in for stringing. You could also give them a muffin pan and make putting the papers in it an activity.

Laurel
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Unregistered 11:47 AM 02-08-2015
Put some food coloring and some dish detergent (Dawn type, not dishwasher) in a bowl of water. Have them blow bubbles in the bowl and then place paper on top. The bubbles pop and make a design on the paper.

Practice before blowing in the bowl - some kids automatically suck in. Yuck.
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CraftyMom 11:55 AM 02-08-2015
Originally Posted by Unregistered:
Put some food coloring and some dish detergent (Dawn type, not dishwasher) in a bowl of water. Have them blow bubbles in the bowl and then place paper on top. The bubbles pop and make a design on the paper.

Practice before blowing in the bowl - some kids automatically suck in. Yuck.
Great idea! We've done this and it is soooo fun and cool!
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KatiesCorner 06:34 AM 02-09-2015
Originally Posted by Unregistered:
Put some food coloring and some dish detergent (Dawn type, not dishwasher) in a bowl of water. Have them blow bubbles in the bowl and then place paper on top. The bubbles pop and make a design on the paper.

Practice before blowing in the bowl - some kids automatically suck in. Yuck.
Love this activity! If you cut a very small triangle out of the straws you can blow through them, but it prevents getting good auction. Also, doing an activity like blowing pom poms across a table sometime in the week before doing the activity helps prepare the kids for blowing.
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KatiesCorner 06:37 AM 02-09-2015
Straws are fun to use with play doh, if you cut them down into halves and thirds they make good arms and legs for creatures. Add some googly eyes in there, or pony beads for eyes.

I've never done it but I think I've seen a flower craft using baking cups on Pinterest you could look up.
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CraftyMom 08:31 AM 02-14-2015
I just saw this on Pinterest...good use for your straws AND paper baking cups!
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SilverSabre25 08:36 AM 02-14-2015
YES! You ladies are so awesome! Thank you!
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midaycare 03:02 PM 02-15-2015
Use them for drinking water?

I work with a few speech therapists that ask I have the kids use straws and blow bubbles frequently. Both help develop muscles used for speech.
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