These DIY Ribbon Wands will brighten up any day! Super simple & frugal to create, they're perfect for celebrating any special occasion & oodles of fun for outdoor play.
To make them you'll need:
* Wooden dowel rods (we picked up a meter of dowel for 70p from a local hardware store, & cut into 15" sections)
* 1 screw eye
* 2 split rings/key rings
* Ribbons
* 1 small safety pin
* 1 small safety pin
To start making your Ribbon Wands, twist the screw eye to the centre of the dowel.
Then join the split rings together, & thread one through the screw. You could use just one split ring, but we found using two helped prevent the ribbons getting tied up when twirling.
Gather your ribbons for the wand together & cut until they are a similar length. We used 32" ribbons which were an ideal length for the children making these. Thread all the ribbons onto the safety pin & attach to the split ring.
And then dance, twirl & swirl to your hearts content! These are great for encouraging gross motor moves & perfect for outdoor play. Just watching them swirl around is guaranteed to make you smile!
We've made several of these with different coloured ribbons to give to friends & our rainbow ribbons were a definite favourite! The children have loved personalising their wands by decorating the wood dowel with paint, pens, & stickers!
There are so many ways to play with this colourful wand. We've been exploring which shapes you can create as you swirl the ribbons, what happens to the ribbons when you hold the wand out & turn around, & imagining our ribbon wand is a wishing wand, or a magic wand! We've also discovered it makes a great tail, & how much fun it is to explore how high, low, & wide you can wave the ribbons! Great for encouraging co-ordination, & control of gross motor movements, as well as spatial awareness.
We're going to use our red, white & blue ribbons to join in our local Jubilee celebrations in a few weeks, & make another with red, gold, green, blue, & black ribbons (the colours of the Olympic rings) to cheer on our Olympic team.
But in the meantime, I think we'll enjoying dancing around the garden with them!