The Masters Tournament is this weekend!!!  And for those mommas out there who don’t share my love of golf (it was an acquired taste for me as well that I only got once I started playing myself), the Masters is one of the four major tournaments annually, and unlike other majors, it is held on the same course in Georgia each year.  Oh, and the winner gets a hideous, but highly coveted, green blazer.  And since the last time I actually got to play a round was almost 3 years ago on vacation in Scotland, I’ve been cleaning out my dust-covered golf bag and putting the contents to fun use with the girls.  We started two weeks ago with a warm up for Easter – Backyard Golf Ball Hunt, continued last week with a Golf Tee Challenge, and this week, used golf tees to Create a Creature (or 4)!

Create a Creature with Golf Tees

My concept began with some cut up pieces of pool noodles (Dollar Store) and a handful of golf tees.  At Big M’s request, I kept dragging more supplies out of the craft closet, but you can use just about anything you have on hand.  Key supplies for our creatures included:

Supplies:

Golf tees
Pool noodle (cut in small segments)
Styrofoam balls
Googly eyesFeathers
Foam stickers
Jewels
Tooth picks
Pipe cleaners
Glue dots

Cost: Free – Less than $5 (everything we used, I already had)
Prep Time: Less than 10 minutes (collect materials, cut noodles)
Clean-Up Time: Less than 10 minutes

I highly recommend using glue dots to attach decorations, as they provide instant gratification for less than patient toddlers and preschoolers.  Big M, at 3.5, can even use them all by herself now.  The toothpicks worked great for securing pieces together.  I started the project by giving each of the girls a piece of noodle and left the rest of the materials assorted in the middle of the table.  You can easily cut through a pool noodle with a serrated bread knife.

Big M putting a glue dot on a jewel

Big M kicked things off by building her Jeweled Space Creature.  Other than asking for some help with the mouth, pushing in the feathers in the Styrofoam head, and more sheets of glue dots for all her jewels – she did it all.  She was all about the jewels, not so much the golf tees.  They only featured as arms.

I thought Lil’ M would need more help… but these days (20 months), she is all about “Me do!”  I gave her a handful of golf tees, a handful of feathers, gave her some eyes with glue dots on the back, and she did her own thing.  It was her inspired idea to put the foam stickers on the face of the tees!  She spent about half an hour assembling, disassembling and re-assembling her single creature.

Big M really enjoyed this activity.  I had started a creature of my own, which she asked to take over after decking out Jeweled Space Martian.  She named this one Spikey Peacock.

After Spikey Peacock, she was quite taken with the toothpicks.  She asked for another piece of noodle to create a third creature – Thorny Flower.  I helped with the pipe cleaners, but the rest was all her.  I loved the butterflies she added ‘flying around’ her flower.  She would have made a whole zoo of creatures if I hadn’t run out of pool noodle pieces and time.  Lunch was calling!

This was a great invitation to create idea, and the girls took it so much farther than I anticipated for either of them.  I am endlessly amazed by their imaginations and creativity.  This would be an awesome activity in a classroom setting as well – you could have a whole menagerie of creatures!

What materials do your kids like to build and create with?  What other uses have you found for pool noodles?  What other activities have you done with golf tees?  Be sure to check out the other posts in our Fun from the Golf Bag series here!