Making zipper board for kids

WE all  love making our own toys. DIY Tugging Box and Sensory Board for Babies would have to be two of my most popular posts on Laughing Kids Learn.Toddlers has very much entered the stage of independence and wanting to do everything herself. There are times that they are able to complete things with great success, however, we can often find that some tasks are a little beyond their current abilities and we then enter the stage of major frustration and tantrum territory.

Whilst trying to dress herself, toddlers became quite curious about a zip they found on a pair of pants. we should demonstrated to them how a zip worked and they will have a few attempts themself. It was from this point that we ll  came up with the idea of a DIY zipper sensory board for kids! Simple, fun and educational.

What you will need -

1. Piece of cardboard
2. Variety of zips (differing sizes and different colours optional)
3. Hot glue gun
4. Scissors

How to make your own DIY zipper board for kids

Begin by cutting out a piece of cardboard from an old nappy box. Take  10 coloured zips for this sensory board and made the size of the board a suitable size so that all zips would fit. It’s a good idea to firstly decide how you ‘d like your zips to be positioned on the board. Considered how this board would be used during play and so making them zip in various directions was important to me.

Preparing your zips

It’s a good idea to check your zips are not able to completely separate once used.Once used had little metal staples at the end to ensure they didn’t come apart. If yours doesn’t have these metal staples, I’d suggest adding a staple yourself.Zips didn’t sit completely flat when placed on the board. Using quality scissors, cut off the tail ends of the zips, as clearly shown above.

Doing this step allowed each zip to lay completely flat and ready for the next step.

Securing the zips to the board

This is where things got a little tricky and  recommend this step only to be performed by an adult. Using a hot glue gun run a length of glue on either side of the zip, completely avoiding the middle area that will later be separated when the zip is opened.
Important things to remember - 

1. Use as little glue as possible as the glue will spread when secured to the board. You don’t want it to spread to that middle zip area and cause the zip to not open!
2. Work quickly but carefully. The glue will be super hot but will dry quickly. You need your whits about you and I recommend not doing this when there are potential distractions (if that’s ever possible).
3. Stick to the plan and know where each zip is going to be placed prior to adding any glue.

Once you have added your glue, add it to your cardboard and lightly press the zip into place. Remember, you want to avoid glue running into the middle of the zip so pressing/spreading the glue to the outer edges is a great idea.

Solving a potential problem

Of the 10 zips  did, there was only one that wouldn’t allow me to zip it from top to bottom. Clearly some of the hot glue made it’s way into the middle of the zip and sealed it closed. How to easily solve this problem was pulling up one side of the zip and attempting the zip again. After a few attempts the problem was solved and  could secure the zip once again with some more glue.

Learning achieved with this zipper board

Toddlers will have fabulous time playing with her own zipper board and did so most of the afternoon. In fact, they seems to play with lots of the learning actives, such as the DIY tugging box, I make for her. Possibly because of tapping into her interests and stages of development. Key learning points achieved with this zipper board are -

1. Fine motor skills
2. Sensory awareness
3. Identifying colours
4. Discussing length of zips etc

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