Homeschool – Fine motor development
Pipe Cleaner Fun
Emeraude's 2nd fly, it actually had more colours (there was red, green and also purple I think) which fell off as we played or were pulled off to become props to our pretend.)
This afternoon, when Emeraude would normally take her nap, we settled on my bed with a mountain of pipe cleaners and worked on the craft I had found from MarthaStewart.com the other day. The instructions were very clear, definitely a fine motor development activity, and tons of room for creative interpretation.
Emeraude decided we would start with the squirrel. I did not think of it at the time but am now realizing we could have improvised and used a pine cone where the example had an acorn. Perhaps tomorrow I will present the suggestion to Emeraude. She laughed a lot, as she did not think he looked very much like a squirrel. We then moved on to the tiger who was also a lot of fun thanks to his need of stripes which we added with the brown permanent marker that we had been using to coil the pipe cleaners. There was still a chameleon on the instructions but Emeraude decided it was time to break free of the instructions and began making a fly.
1st she made her black fly (actually black & purple) which had great results and looked quite similar to a black fly. I then started on the chameleon. Emeraude assisted with the chameleon’s bends (knees & feet) between colours on her fly (a new one, not the black fly). It was a great afternoon and, had I felt better, I would not have mentioned the time as Emeraude was thoroughly enjoying the craft. 
This is a very tactile craft. The pipe cleaners we used were not just a variety of colours but also varied in texture. Emeraude enjoyed all the colours and probably would have used one of each for her fly had we continued. We worked at them for about 45 minutes. Grandmaman had called earlier in the day to invite Emeraude to play and was waiting for a call to pick her up. I was also beginning to be quite distracted by the pain in my legs and arms and needed to go back to the hospital for an injection.
Emeraude's list of what we made. At the end of our crafting, I arranged all the creatures on my laptop, put her sheet up against the monitor and said it was a museum. She corrected me that it was a zoo (duh Mommy lol) and we agreed that it had been a wonderful activity.
CLICK HERE to read the original post regarding this craft which includes instructions and a link back to the original page @ MarthaStewart.com
Comment below to share your ideas/ comments about this and other pipe cleaner crafts!
