30 Pom Pom Activities for Babies, Toddlers & Preschoolers
Little pom poms from the dollar store or craft store are really great for kids to play with. They’re soft, colourful, fun, and they have all sorts of uses. Carly’s girls can’t get enough of pom poms lately!
When we spoke about this on Instagram, pom pom play got such a great response! You all sent in such wonderful games and suggestions of ways you use pom poms with your kids. We compiled all of your ideas and wanted to share them in a blog post so that you can easily come back to it whenever you need a fun and easy way to fill the day!
So here it is! Your go-to list of 30 pom pom activities for toddlers! It’s full of your DIY ideas, plus a few you that originally came from some amazing bloggers and websites, and that you told me your kids are loving!
30 Pom Pom Activities for Toddlers
Water Play
Make soup! Add them to a big bowl of water . We put a big beach towel down for easy clean up.
Add them to the bath. Throw them in and have fun scooping, pouring, and swirling them.
Make a Pom Pom Water Sensory Bag! This is a great one from @babyplayhacks.
(Keep reading for tips on drying and re-using your pom poms!)
Learning Activities
Sort pom poms by colour or size! Use an egg carton, a muffin tin, or little containers.
Count them! You can draw numbers on a piece of paper so they can see them.
Practice identifying colours & saying colour names.
Make patterns with different colours and sizes.
Stick the pom poms into a whisk (just grap a handful and shove them in, haha), and then allow your child to pull them out from inside of it. Babies love this, too!
Reuse plastic bottles by filling each one up with a different item (i.e., beads, pom poms, plastic animals, water, etc.). Babies love to look at them and shake them. Older children can make them, and learn about different weights and sounds, or do use them as a “calm down” sensory bottle.
Filling & Transferring
Use tongs or tweezers to pick them up and carry them from one room to another. Would be fun as a race!
Fill old bottles with pom poms and squeeze them to pop the pom poms out.
Put pom poms in an old wipes box. Depending on your kids’ ages, let your kids either pull them all out, or transfer between an open container and the wipes box.
Make a Pom Pom Push Toy by cutting a hole in the lid of a container, and pushing the pom poms through. This is a great idea that originally came from Busy Toddler.
Transfer them from one container to another with fingers, a spoon, tongs or tweezers. Containers could be different sizes, heights, or even set up in different rooms!
Fun Games & Silly Activities (Higher energy and volume!)
Take a deep breath and blow on them to move them around.
“Parachute” Play: Put them in a scarf or swaddle blanket and make them “pop” out by shaking the blanket.
Drop them down a paper towel tube. You can also try taping paper towel and toilet paper tubes to a wall.
Put them on top of each other’s heads and tip your head so they fall down.
Hide pom poms in beans or rice, and have your kids try to find them. Young kids can keep their eyes open, and older kids can close eyes wear a blindfold!
Tap them on your baby’s body as you sing songs & rhymes.
Throw them around like confetti! Party time!
Pretend Play
Ice cream shop! Make DIY cones out of construction paper or use bowls.
Roll them down a car ramp (or a DIY ramp).
Construction site. Fill up a dump truck using an excavator toy.
“Feed” them to stuffed animals or other toys. Talk about what kinds of food you’re pretending they are!
Go shopping! Put them in shopping carts, baskets, or bags.
Turn them into caterpillars. You can glue them or just line them up, or even add googly eyes.
Crafts
Glue them to paper or colouring pages. (Try holiday or seasonal images!)
Paint with them. Dip pom poms in paint instead of using brushes or fingers.
Thread them together (try patterns, solid colours, or a mix of colours).
Pom Pom Play Tips from the @WeeTalkers Community
The Wee Talkers Instagram community had so many more great ideas that we hadn’t thought about! Here’s what Wee Talkers parents had to say:
Pom poms make the perfect little activity to keep in the diaper bag because they’re light and silent ☺️
Reuse your pom poms again and again by drying them after using them in water! You can throw them in a pillowcase, tie a knot and pop them in the dryer. Or, simply lay them out on a towel.
Try buying pom poms in holiday colours (orange and black for Halloween, red and green for Christmas, etc.). This way you can talk about the colors and the holidays!
When you need to switch it up, just grab a new object from around the house and let them have fun with it! Try an egg carton, a muffin tin, spoons, tweezers, etc.
Thank you all so much for your ideas and tips!
Did we forget any great ones? Leave us a comment or get in touch, and we’ll be sure to add it.