Threading is a skill that’s beneficial for children in many ways. Threading or beading develops fine motor skills, visual perception skills, and eye-hand coordination. Threading, such as this button towers activity, also encourages concentration and patience.
Making button towers is a repeated process, creating an opportunity for children to make choices on sizes and colors of buttons or beads and planning their work, whether they choose to sort by color, size, or create pattern.
How fun is this simple threading idea? All you need is some play dough, dry spaghetti noodles, and some colorful buttons. Try it with rainbow colors or Christmas buttons for a holiday themed activity.
Flatten a piece of play dough to make a base for your buttons towers.
Carefully push the dry spaghetti noodles into the play dough. Now you’re ready to start threading buttons!
Stacking buttons on the pasta is a task little ones find irresistible. They want to fill up the spaghetti to the top. Try creating a pattern, counting your buttons or making it a race!
You might want to put the materials on a tray and keep it handy to revisit this activity again later. Your little ones will want to make button towers over and over again!
