Classroom Ideas
Technically, pool noodles are toys meant to make swimming more fun and are often used to help children float when they are learning how to swim. While great for swimming pools, these floaties are made from polyethylene foam, which is pretty durable, making them the perfect tool to whip up some helpful, useful, and just plain fun things for your classroom.
Hit your local dollar store, stock up on pool noodles, and use these ideas to help you make them so much more than a summer toy.
1. Practice spelling
Divide the noodle into sections and use a permanent marker to write letters on each piece. Make sure you have plenty of vowels. Your students can thread the pieces onto rulers or dowels to practice their spelling skills.
2. Identify greater than and less than
Slice two colors of pool noodles into pieces. Write different inequality signs on several pieces of one color. Write numbers on the second color of noodle slices. Your students can use the inequality signs to identify the bigger and smaller numbers.
3. Match letters
Write uppercase and lowercase letters on several pieces of pool noodle. Ask your students to match the little letters to the big letters.
4. Make patterns
Cut several thin slices of different colors of pool noodles and your students will have a quick and simple way to create any pattern they can think of.
5. Alphabetical order
Write the 26 letters of the alphabet on pieces of a pool noodle. Have your students stack them in ABC order. Make the activity age-appropriate for more advanced students by writing words on the pieces instead of letters.
6. Make stamps
Use slices of a noodle as a stamp. Students can dip the pieces in paint and create an assortment of prints on a large piece of paper. Once dry, your students can decorate their images with markers and other art supplies.
7. Practice fractions
Cut several lengths of pool noodle. Put one of these lengths aside to become the representation of a whole. Cut the remaining pieces into halves, thirds, fourths, or whatever fractions you’re practicing in the classroom. Students can align the fractions to match one another.
8. Paint brush holder
Keep your art supplies neat and tidy by cutting slits into a piece of pool noodle so your students can balance their paint brushes while they work.
9. Flashcard holder
Sometimes kids have trouble holding cards without dropping them. Use a slice of pool noodle with a slit cut in it as a quick and easy way for your students to hold and see their flashcards. This hack also works great for any card games you might play in your classroom.
10. Classroom décor
Jazz up your classroom décor by stringing pool noodle slices in a variety of colors onto a thick piece of twine. Hang your completed garlands throughout your classroom.
11. Free play
Give your students a variety of pool noodle pieces in different colors and sizes and encourage them play with them creatively. They might use them as blocks or sort them by color or size.
12. Build STEM structures
Challenge your students to build a structure Jenga style. This is a great way to incorporate STEM into your classroom.
13. Make something
Older students can use pool noodles to create whatever their brains can think up. Perhaps an airplane that actually flies?
14. Get some exercise
Bend pool noodles into arches and your students can practice kicking a ball under or crawling through them. This makes a great field day activity.
15. Make boats
Reinforce science concepts, such as floating vs. sinking or buoyancy, by turning slices of pool noodles into small boats and setting them afloat.
16. Create bugs
Extend your science unit about bugs by having your students use their crafting and STEM skills to turn pool noodle slices into a variety of bugs.
17. Craft huge DNA
Help your students understand what makes DNA so intriguing by creating giant models using noodles of four different colors.
18. Practice fine motor skills
Let preschoolers work on their fine motor skills by using tweezers to transfer pompoms into the middle of pool noodle slices.
19. Giant ring toss
Use pool noodles as stakes and inflatable innertubes as rings to add a giant ring toss game to your PE schedule or field day lineup.
20. Make launchers
Tape a cut balloon to the end of a piece of pool noodle. Put a pompom on the opposite of side the balloon and you have a lesson that holds potential to teach students a variety of physics concepts. Students can also practice their measuring skills to see how far their pompoms fly.
21. Create giant school supplies
Use colored duct tape to turn pool noodles into giant markers, crayons, or pencils.
22. Practice sight words
Write letters on pieces of noodle and your students can practice making their sight words. This activity also works well for practicing spelling words.
23. Construct towers and buildings
A tub of pool noodle slices and a pile of toothpicks is all it takes to encourage students to build towers as tall as they can or bridges as long as they can.
24. Practice phonics
Write word endings on pieces of pool noodles. Write letters on popsicle sticks and stick them into the noodle. Your students will be able to practice reading words with the same ending.
25. Teach place value
Cut several long lengths of pool noodle. Set aside a few to be your “tens.” Cut the remaining pieces into ten equal pieces each to be your “ones.” Your students can use the tens and ones to represent a variety of two-digit numbers
26. Display name tags
If you’re one of the many teachers who doesn’t like to tape things to student desks, pool noodles cut in half are the perfect solution for displaying your students’ name tags. Cut a slit in the halves and set them on desks.
Don’t overlook the potential a simple pool noodle has. Your students will be sure to thank you!
