Friday, January 7, 2011

Cereal Box and Bread Clip, Counting Frame, Abacus




I had to chuckle, at a comment yesterday, from Natalie at Mouse Grows, Mouse Learns, asking if I had taken Debbie's bread clip and tie dilemma, over at Children Grow, Children Explore, Children Learn, as a personal challenge.

I had planned yesterday's peanut pal craft (which used bread ties), before I read Debbie's post (click the link above to read it).

But, her post did get me thinking about the large amount of bread clips, congregating in my own kitchen, and on the sad state of my cupboards, which could use a good cleaning out, too.

After all the Thanksgiving, and Christmas baking, cleaning out the cupboards is going to be quite a job. Dealing with the bread clips (at least 100 of them), was much easier.

I started by cutting the front off of a tall cereal box. It's important the box be at least 1 foot tall.



I trimmed, and tape the top closed, for stability.

Then, since my box had printing on the inside, I glued a piece of construction paper on the inside of the box.


Using a ruler, I drew a line down the center of the sides, as a guide, and marked off each inch.


With a hole punch, I punched 10, evenly spaced holes, at the inch marks, on each side. Actually, I made 11, because I wasn't sure if I'd want to go higher, or lower in the box, but I only used 1o of the holes.


I strung 10 bread clips (of the same color), onto a wood dowel, 1/2 centimeter in diameter, repeating until I had 10 clip laden dowels.


Then, I threaded the ends of the dowels through the holes in the box.


I secured the dowels in place, by wrapping pieces of tape around them, on the outside of the box.

Finally, I added number labels to each dowel, indicating the amount each clip represents on that dowel. Children, already familiar with counting frames, probably wouldn't need the labels.

It can be played with standing up, or laid down, but we found the clips were easier to move quickly, when the box was laid down.


Now, with the fun out of the way, I'm off to face the cupboards.

P.S. - I realized as we started to play with it, that there should only be 9 clips on each dowel, and so we removed one from each.





It's great to be a homeschooler.

13 comments:

Ticia said...

Interesting. Ours usually come with the twist ties, but now I'm thinking I might have to hunt out some of the other ones, because I've got an itch too.

Natalie PlanetSmarty said...

WOW! I don't know if I am more amazed with the fact that you had 100+ bread ties or with what you did with them. This is the best homemade abacus I've ever seen.

An Almost Unschooling Mom said...

Natalie - That's nothing - you should see the milk caps :)

Christy Killoran said...

I was going to say exactly what Natalie said.

I start saving things like bread clips and then I go on a cleaning spree and throw them all out.

Kylie said...

Oh my, ditto to Natalie.....wonder if Debbie will take on the challenge hehehe

Phyllis said...

I have to say that this is the most clever use of bread ties I have ever seen. We don't get much bought bread, so it take me years to get 100 bread ties, so I don't see this in my future, but it is clever.

Brimful Curiosities said...

I'm actually not sure what to say! I thought my junk drawer was cluttered but I know I have nowhere near as many bread ties saved. Of course, we have a smaller family so we probably don't eat as many loaves as you.

Elle Belles Bows said...

GENIUS!! Love it! That is also an impressive amount of bread tie collecting! Kerri

Unknown said...

That is SERIOUSLY crazy creative!

Joyful Learner said...

I wish I can give you a genius award. I want K to go study as your apprentice. Seriously, you amaze me! Can you link this to our math links? Thanks!

The Activity Mom said...

Wow! That is awesome!

The girl who painted trees said...

Brilliant!

Cindy said...

Here's a couple for the milk caps:

http://love2learn2day.blogspot.com/2010/11/milk-cap-math-mads-elimination.html

http://love2learn2day.blogspot.com/2010/11/milk-cap-math-magic-square-game.html

:)