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Recycled Crafts – Toy Street Sweeper Brushes

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Happy Fine Motor Friday! We are back with playful ways to get kids' hands moving! Today's DIY Toy is not only another one of our Recycled Crafts but is great to work on wrist extension and bilateral integration. Note- I did add a couple affiliate links to this post, which just means that if you happen to click and shop through that link, I earn a tiny commission at no extra cost to you.

Recycled Crafts for Kids = Genius DIY Toys for Kids that REALLY Clean!

 

I know it LOOKS like I've got my kid scrubbing the floors but that is truly just a bonus. These Recycled Street Sweeper Brushes are inspired by my son's love of the Twenty Trucks videos.

If you have a truck and construction vehicle lover in your life, you have to check them out. I will warn you though, I happen to love them all but they totally get stuck in your head, not just when you see the videos but any time you see that vehicle on the street! Which is totally fine with me and the kids…just thought I should give you a heads up if you're annoyed by that! 😉

Anyhow, so the Street Sweeper video is totally fun and, like all the Twenty Trucks videos, is actually informative and full of live action shots rather than cartoons.

The other day a street sweeper was driving around our neighborhood while we were out for a walk and we JUST kept missing it, going from one street to the next to see it up close. I swear I logged at least an extra thousand steps on my FitBit that day chasing that thing! And we totally sang the song when we caught up with it!

This craft is one of those seriously simple crafts that took about 3 minutes to put together and the payoff was so great.

My son spent quite a bit of time sweeping the floors when I showed the street sweeper brushes to him! And YES they totally DO clean!

We also love the book Little Blue Truck Leads the Way and anyone who has read that book will remember the key phrase of the street sweeper….

“Swish Swash Swoosh went the big street sweeper!” So that is the sound I hear from my own little street sweeper when he uses these.

You can see in that picture up there that my son needs to lean forward onto his arms to use these. They also make him extend his wrists back and work on using both hands in either the same rotation or opposing rotation. It was tricky for him to work both of them but he worked it out pretty quickly.

If you'd like to make some of your own, the tutorial is below. If you like crafts based on trucks and construction vehicles, you might enjoy these other recycled crafts too! You also just might enjoy seeing my son's winter wardrobe and various stages of his hair growth, hahaha!

Recycled Crafts – Swiffer Street Sweeper Brushes

Materials

Two round plastic lids (Ours are from prunes. True story.)
Two toilet paper rolls or a paper towel roll
Two swiffer sheets OR reusable washable wipes
Scotch mounting squares, glue dots or hot glue gun
Scissors

Instructions

Using your scissors blade tip make an X shaped incision in the center of the lids. Next snip or poke a similar X shaped incision into the center of each of the toilet paper rolls. Place two mounting squares (or glue dots or beads of hot glue) where you want to mount the toilet paper roll on the inside of the lid. Align the X of the toilet roll over the X of the lid and press it down. Now all you have to do is use your finger to press the swiffer sheets into the X shapes on each lid. It will be oddly shaped so you can use your scissors to trim it into a circle and if you wish, snip around the swiffer to make it look like brush bristles.

Ta-Da! Now you can hand them to your street sweeper and let them get to work! You can replace the swiffer as needed, or try the reusable wipes to make it a more economical way to play AND clean!

Please do Pin this on Pinterest or share on Facebook if you like it!

Recycled Crafts for Kids - Make reusable street sweeper brushes for pretend play, They really clean too! Parent Hack woot!

 



Be Sure to Follow My DIY Kids Stuff Pinterest Board for THOUSANDS of fun kids craft and activity ideas!

Follow Laura @ Lalymom Kids Crafts & Activities's board DIY Kids Stuff on Pinterest.

 

Fine Motor Fridays

Fine Motor Fridays Series from Lalymom Be sure to click through to See what the other Fine Motor Fridays gals have been up to this week! You can check out all our past Fine Motor Fridays posts in our group Pinterest Board AND check out our new Fine Motor Ideas book!

Fine Motor Encouraging Toys for Baby from Powerful Mothering Building Lego Droids Star Wars Sensory Activity from Little Bins for Little Hands

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