Paper Clip Fun

Finally, the moment all of you have been waiting for- I'm going to add some sparkle to your homeschooling! For those of you who may not know what I'm talking about, one of the talks I gave at the North Carolina State Homeschool Convention was about adding sparkle to your homeschooling. I promised I'd add sparkling ideas to my blog now and then too. I figured I better get on the stick since the convention is long past and since I have to drive my son to the other side of the city tonight during rush hour so I can watch him play baseball in 100 degree heat! I don't know how sparkly I'll be after that!

Today's topic is paper clip fun. I'm going to give you some ideas for amusing/educating your children with a simple pack of colored paper clips. Let's start with ideas for preschoolers.

Preschool and Kindergarten

-Have the child sort the paper clips into colors. Example: a pile of blue, a pile of yellow etc...

-Use the paper clips for counting skills, "Junior, will you please count out 10 paper clips for me?" Better yet, master several skills at once, "Junior, I'd like 4 green paper clips and 6 red ones, please."


-Begin simple math skills. "Junior, I have 2 paper clips in my right hand and 3 paper clips in my left hand. How many paper clips do I have all together?"

-Give the child a magnet and let him practice picking paper clips up or making various magnetic art creations.

-Practice fine motor skills by having the child make a paper clip chain or necklace.

-Teach sequencing by placing some paper clips in order such as red, yellow, green, red, yellow, green and have the child tell you which comes next in the sequence.

-Make pretty patterns and designs together. Teach symetry by making symetrical patterns or pictures.

-Show the child how a paper clip is actually used. This may be new information.

Elementary/Older Kids
- Set up math problems with the paper clips. For example, put 5 blue ones in a row with another row of 2 red ones beneath them. Have the child practice writing the equation on paper and working it. You can do addition, subtraction, multiplication, even division.

-Have the child count out a number of paper clips that can be divided. For example, "Junior, count out 12 paper clips. Now divide those 12 into 3 equal groups. How many do you have in each group?" This also works to teach remainders if the clips can't be put into equal groups.

-Let each child choose a paper clip to unfold. See who can make a paper clip into the straightest line. Then see who can reshape it as closely as possible to it's original form.

-Have a contest to see who can come up with the most creative art project made from paper clips.

-Make all of the paper clips into one giant long chain. Surprise! Whoever makes the chain also has to take it back apart.

-Place all of the paper clips in a jar or plastic bag and have your student guesstimate how many are in the container. Then let the student count them all to see how close he came. It's better if you get a guess from each family member to see who wins.

-Have your older student choose a paper clip and write a story about it, being as creative as possible. For example, a student might write a story called "A Day at the Office" that tells about all the adventures a single paper clip has in a day out in the corporate world.

-See who can come up with the most unique use for a paper clip. It can't be its ordinary usage.

-Adopt a paper clip for a day. Let each child be the parent to a paper clip for a day. Everywhere the child goes, the paper clip goes too, but it can't be in a pocket. It has to in the child's view at all times. See who still has their paper clip at the end of the day.

-If you have some filing or papers that need to be clipped together have the student use paper clips to actually do work.

-Look up who invented the paper clip or the history of the paper clip on the internet.

-Practice making paper clips out of other types of things like modeling clay or paper.

If you have other ideas to share just leave them in the comments section.