Rainbow Ribbons

To go along with our current "Rainbow" unit, I made a new movement wand--I went through my ribbon box and found ribbon/yarn in all the colors of the rainbow. I threaded them through a large wooden bead, and then jammed the bead onto a pair of chopsticks that haven't been broken apart well. I shoved the bead down as far as I could get it to go, and voila! We will have lots of fun waving our ribbons as we do movement activities and dancing!

Oh yeah, I also took a lighter and gently burnt the ends of the ribbon by running the ribbon NEAR the flame so they would melt a little bit and not unravel.

Infants would love playing with this colorful wand! Older infants could wave and shake it themselves as they work on grasping skills and hand-to-hand transfer of objects. For younger ones, you could wave it for them as you sang songs to them. You could also take it outside, hold it up and watch the wind move the ribbons.
The bead has never come off for us, but you could squeeze a little superglue, elmers glue or hot glue into the bead top before you slid it down the chopsticks if you want it to be extra secure.

If you don't have chopsticks you could buy a dowel at a hardware store or Hobby Lobby that fit inside your bead.......

This wand can be used to encourage movement, especially movement across the body (crossing the midline--for more info click here) which is a necessary skill to master before children can successfully read and write. The wands can also encourage rhythm awareness, body coordination, and imaginary play. The movements used to move the wand also develop the wrist muscles necessary for writing.