Spiral Stringing

I have always loved Slinky's and use them a lot to create fun and functional activities. I also like making a similar spiral shape out of shampoo or other thin, plastic cylindrical bottles. The video shows how easily and quickly I can cut one. I have made a variety of sensory activities out of these because its fun to watch it move or objects to travel down the spiral. Its bouncy. You can add color. these are free, versatile, fun, visually engaging and safe since they will never be sharp when broken-like a real Slinky is.
You can cut bottles of various sizes, but the larger bottles won't have the same springy quality as the smaller bottle does.

The shapes that are strung can have one or two notches. Some individuals may weave them on and others may remove them- depending on the skill level of the child or adult.

This activity encourages use of two hands together as the child weaves the plastic pieces on and promotes active range of motion because the person needs to raise one end high while stabilizing the bottom end in order to watch the shapes spiral downward.