We’ve all seen this craft idea, right? While I can’t say I ever read a tutorial or a blog post about how to make it, I’ve been seeing pins of this pool noodle stringing activity since Pinterest was barely a thing. It’s one of about a million busy bag ideas floating around the interwebs nowadays. Since it seems to be one of the most frugal, and since I knew my kids would enjoy it, I bought what I needed and sacrificed eight minutes of my life to put the whole thing together.
And since I thought maybe, just maybe, there’s someone out there who wants a step-by-step photo tutorial of how the whole thing went, I took pictures to share here.
pool noodle busy bag
-pool noodle
-3 feet of rope
-plastic shoebox size container (optional)
Begin by cutting your noodle in half. Unless you want a ton of circles, one noodle makes enough slices for two busy bags.
Using a sharp knife- I used my all-time favorite Rada bread knife– and a cutting board, slice each half of the noodle into one-inch sections.
Don’t worry about the noodle holding up when it’s cut. Before I got started, I wondered if the Styrofoam would crumble or break off, but it doesn’t. It holds it shape perfectly, so I imagine this activity will last a while. (Note: the noodle certainly isn’t indestructible; if your child still puts things in her mouth, she should be watched while playing with her busy bag.)