Bead and Pipecleaner Icicle Ornaments
This easy icicle ornament is made with pipe cleaners and beads is an easy Christmas craft for toddlers and preschoolers to make for the Christmas tree. It’s also a great activity to help kids strengthen their fine-motor skills.
With Christmas drawing nearer, and the days getting busier, you’ll love the simplicity of these beautiful but simple icicle ornaments.
These icicles are quick and easy to make, so they’re a great last-minute holiday craft at home or in your daycare or preschool.
You may also like our easy toilet paper roll icicles.
Any time we craft with beads, I like to dump all of the beads into a large container so they kids can get their hands in there and sift through them.
It’s a lovely sensory experience, and often they’ll stop to talk about the particulars of a bead they’ve found: the colour, the shape, how shiny it etc. So even though our icicles are a very simple Christmas craft, it still presents lots of opportunities for learning.
This is a wonderful activity for strengthening fine motor abilities and hand-eye co-ordination, and it’s an opportunity for preschoolers to explore colours and patterning.
How To Make Bead and Pipe Cleaner Icicles
Supplies:
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Silver pipe cleaners are best if you want that glittery, icy look.
Making our icicle ornaments:
Making the ornaments kept the hooligans busy for quite a while.
It requires lots of concentration to thread a pipe cleaner through all of those beads. The holes in some of the beads were really tiny, but they all worked away, unassisted, until their pipe cleaners were loaded up.
To stop the beads from sliding off the end of the pipe cleaner, twist the pipe cleaner around the bottom bead a couple of times, and do the same at the top end once the last bead is on.
Space the beads out a bit so you can see some of the silver in between them.
To give your icicle a spiral effect, have your little one wind the pipe cleaner around a pencil, and then slide it off, and stretch it out a bit.
Finish by slipping a length of thread through the top bead, and knot to secure it.
I love how our icicle ornaments shimmer in light. Simple and sweet. The perfect Christmas craft for this busy time of year.
More Icicle Crafts for Kids:
Crystalized Icicle Ornaments
Plastic Icicle Ornaments
Toilet Roll Icicle Ornaments
Jackie is a mom, wife, home daycare provider, and the creative spirit behind Happy Hooligans. She specializes in kids’ crafts and activities, easy recipes, and parenting. She began blogging in 2011, and today, Happy Hooligans inspires more than 2 million parents, caregivers and Early Years Professionals all over the globe.
