Pom Pom Drop Challenge – Fun Toddler Activity

This pom pom drop toddler activity is fun and educational! Give their fine motor skills a challenge and teach about cause and effect!

Toddlers are often easiest entertained by the simplest things, often things that aren’t toys. I like to try to find the non toy things that my toddler is interested in and turn them into an activity for learning. Because it often holds their attention longer if it is something they are already interested in. Toilet paper and paper towel tubes have many uses, plus almost everyone has them, making them a great thing to use. We collect ours on our bathroom windowsill and then when we have a good collection we make an activity with them.

How Is The Pom Pom Drop Toddler Activity Educational?

Your toddler works on many important skills while playing with this pom pom drop. Toddlers use will have to work on their pincer grasp to pick up the pom poms. The pincer grasp is important for writing in the future and also for learning skills like zipping and buttoning. They also use their fine motor skills to put the pom poms in the tubes, while also working on their depth perception.

The pom pom drop activity also helps them understand cause and effect. Using different things like marbles or paper balls to put down the tubes and changing the angles of the tubes will help them see it in different ways while also understanding how different objects move faster or slower depending on their weight and different angles.

What You Need For This Activity

1. Toilet paper/paper towel tubes
2. Tape or glue dots (I used tape)
3. Pom poms/marbles/etc. (be sure to supervise children at all times with small objects)
4. A flat surface to put the activity on, I used the front of my fridge.
5. Paint (optional)
6. Tongs (optional)

How To Make A Pom Pom Drop Activity

If you choose to paint your tubes do this first and let them dry before continuing. If you aren’t painting your tubes then start with the directions bellow.

1. First take a piece of tape and fold it back on itself non sticky sides together so that you have a tube of tape sticky on all sides. Then put this piece of tape in the middle of each toilet paper tube. Use one on each end of the paper towel tubes because they are longer.

2. Next arrange your tubes on a flat surface (I used my fridge, you could also you a wall or something similar). There are many different ways you can arrange them. You can make just a simple straight line, or zig zag them back and forth. In the picture bellow I made one with two starts.

3. Play! And have fun! This activity normally keeps my toddler entertained for a good half hour and then even longer once she starts re-arranging it.

Different Ways To Play With Pom Pom Drop

• If you don’t have pom poms, any small round thing that will fit through the tube will work. Things like marbles, bouncy balls, or even make your own balls out of paper scraps. Just make sure as with all small things and toddlers that you are supervising them at all times.

• Color matching pom pom drop toddler activity. Paint the tubes different colors and get colored pom poms to match each tube. Then you can work on color matching and putting the colored pom poms down the correct colored tube.
• Have your toddler use a pair of tongs to pick up the pom poms. Because tongs work on fine motor skills, coordination and concentration. All of which are good for building pre-writing skills.
• If your toddler is a little older count the pom poms with them as they put them in the tube.
• Make two different pom pom drops next to each other and watch them race.

Have fun and use your imagination to find many other ways to play! Let me know in the comments other ways you found to play with this pom pom drop.