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Feed the Duplo Alien

January 12, 2016 by Emma Gadsby 26 Comments

It is Tools For Learning time and this weeks manipulative is LEGO® or DUPLO®. Despite Daddy buying Lego for Adam since before he was born, we are currently focusing on Duplo play. The pieces are big enough for Adam to easily handle and they come with the added benefit that you can stick labels onto them. I wanted an activity where Adam could sort colours, shapes and numbers using Duplo pieces. As a result, we created a “Feed the Duplo Alien” activity.

Feed the Duplo Alien. Sort by colours, shapes and numbers(This post contains affiliate links)

To create four aliens I used Pringle tins. These were an ideal size to fit the Duplo in and, as they had lids on, the bricks could be removed quickly when needed. I used a shark knife to cut out a hole in the Pringle tin which would represent the aliens mouth. As I was short on time I didn’t paint the Pringle tins. Instead I used a variety of laminate and Duck tape. Our four aliens consisted of:

Pringle can Aliens

The “Shark Alien” was made from zebra print sticky vinyl. I used white card for the teeth and black card for the mouth outline. The card was stuck down with double side tape. We gave this alien yellow adhesive Wiggly Eyes.

For the “Tongue Alien” I covered it in wood effect self adhesive vinyl and used red ribbon for its tongue. I used a sharp knife to add two small holes to the lid and pushed through two red pipe cleaners. Finally we added red Wiggly Eyes.

Ways to recycle a Pringle tin

The “Green Alien” was made with British Racing Green Duck Tape. I added teeth to the bottom of its mouth and gave it a single blue Wiggly Eye. To its lid I added four small pipe cleaners.

Finally the “Rainbow Alien” was made using rainbow Duck Tape. It had two blue pipe cleaners coming out of its lid and two green Wiggly Eyes.

I added sticky labels to our bricks and used a marker pen to write a shape and a number. Using the four Aliens and Duplo bricks we played three sorting activities:

Colour Sorting

Colour sorting Feed The Aliens

Adam had to sort the colours of the Duplo bricks and place them in the mouth of the Alien which had that colour Wiggly Eye. The green Duplo bricks were fed to the Rainbow Alien as that had green eyes. Adam picked up this activity straight away and ended up feeding two Aliens at the same time.

Shape Sorting

Shape sorting feed the Alien

As I wanted the Aliens to be used for many sorting activities over a long period of time I didn’t add any other distinguishable features to them. Instead I wrote on a Post-It Note and attached it under the Aliens mouth. For this activity I added a triangle, rectangle, square or circle to the Post-It Note. Adam had to hunt through the Duplo bricks to find a shape and then post it into the corresponding Alien. He enjoyed distinguishing between the square and the rectangle bricks.

Number Sorting

Number sorting feed the alien

As I didn’t have 10 Aliens for the Duplo to be sorted into I had to group the numbers. This meant Adam had to focus on what number was written on the Aliens tummy. It took him a little while to understand the process as he assumed that each Alien would only eat one type of number.

Adam enjoyed turning each Duplo brick around until he found the label he needed for each activity. I can see our Aliens being used for many future activities.

Lego activities

Check out these other LEGO and DUPLO activities as part of the #toolsforlearning series:

LEGO Addition Mat for Greater Than/Less Than from Life Over C’s

Duplo Lego Geoboard from Still Playing School

Duplo Consonant Blends Activity from Learning 2 Walk

Educational Playtime with Duplo – Sorting, Estimating and Building from Crafty Mama in ME

LEGO DUPLO Sight Word Towers from Mom Inspired Life

Build A Lego Catapult from Powerful Mothering

Geometric Blueprints with LEGO from Handmade Kids Art

Slippery Lego Duplo Fine Motor Practice from Best Toys 4 Toddlers

Penguin Ice Cube Counting With LEGO from Preschool Powol Packets

Word Building with LEGOS from Sugar Aunts

Hands-on Science: Creating a Water Cycle Project using LEGO from Edventures with Kids

Lego Tower Subtraction Race from The Kindergarten Connection

Lego: 5 reasons you should use it with your kids from The Usual Mayhem

Lego Heart Marble Maze from Lemon Lime Adventures

Dumping Lego Colour Match Activity from Teach me Mommy

Feed the Duplo Alien from Adventures of Adam

How To Create A Duplo Block Painting from Raising Little Superheroes

Letter Sequencing with Lego Duplo from School Time Snippets

Lego ordering, days of the week from In The Playroom

Dental Flossing with Duplo from Study at Home Mama

LEGO Math Ten Frame Games from Lalymom

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Filed Under: Independent Play Activity, Learning Activities, Play Activities, Some time required Tagged With: Busy Bag Play Activities, Colours, DIY activities, Duck Tape, Independent Play Activities, Non-messy activity, Number Recognition Activities, Recycled materials, Toddler play, Tools For Learning Series

Previous Post: « DIY Winnie The Pooh Letters
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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Donna says

    January 12, 2016 at 5:29 pm

    This looks like so much fun! I now wish we had some pringles tubes to sort colours, shapes and numbers! x

    Reply
    • Emma Edwards says

      January 12, 2016 at 9:09 pm

      Sounds the perfect excuse to get eating 🙂

      Reply
  2. Lucy says

    January 12, 2016 at 8:45 pm

    What a great idea. And a good excuse to eat pringles too! Always love home made toys and my son is in a real posting/sorting phase so would enjoy this. #letkidsbekids

    Reply
    • Emma Edwards says

      January 12, 2016 at 9:11 pm

      I love the posting phase and this may detract from the wrong type of posting (ie the keys through the letter box!). Enjoy those Pringles!

      Reply
  3. Baby Isabella says

    January 12, 2016 at 9:04 pm

    What a great idea! We love that you’ve adapted Duplo to make it more educational! #LetKidsBeKids x

    Reply
    • Emma Edwards says

      January 12, 2016 at 9:12 pm

      There are so many more possibilities to Duplo than just building 🙂

      Reply
  4. maryanne @ mama smiles says

    January 12, 2016 at 9:28 pm

    What a great idea! My preschooler will love this – thanks!

    Reply
    • Emma Edwards says

      January 13, 2016 at 7:16 am

      Thank you 🙂

      Reply
  5. Shannon says

    January 13, 2016 at 12:37 am

    What a fun learning idea! I love that you had shapes and numbers!

    Reply
    • Emma Edwards says

      January 13, 2016 at 7:16 am

      Adam loved it!

      Reply
  6. Karen Bell says

    January 13, 2016 at 1:35 pm

    Fantastic idea! I love how versatile Lego/Duplo is. Love your little monsters, such a fun game to learn from.
    Thanks for sharing #LetKidsbeKids

    Reply
    • Emma Edwards says

      January 15, 2016 at 11:49 am

      There are endless possibilities with Lego and Duplo 🙂

      Reply
  7. Caroline (Becoming a SAHM) says

    January 14, 2016 at 6:03 am

    Very creative and I love the idea of using them to sort numbers and shapes too xx #letkidsbekids

    Reply
    • Emma Edwards says

      January 15, 2016 at 11:49 am

      Thank you. Do doubt we shall use our Aliens for many future activities.

      Reply
  8. Tina says

    January 17, 2016 at 10:56 am

    This is such a cute activity! It makes learning so much more fun

    Reply
    • Emma Edwards says

      January 19, 2016 at 4:25 pm

      Adam had no idea he was learning 🙂

      Reply
  9. Jenny says

    January 17, 2016 at 7:56 pm

    This a great idea! I must go buy some Pringles to make them. ???? #letkidsbekids

    Reply
    • Emma Edwards says

      January 19, 2016 at 4:24 pm

      It is certainly a great excuse to buy/eat Pringles 🙂

      Reply
  10. Sara at Handy Herbs says

    January 19, 2016 at 10:48 am

    What a creative learning idea! Great to have made it so educational. Thanks so much for sharing 🙂 #ToddlerApprovedTuesday

    Reply
    • Emma Edwards says

      January 19, 2016 at 4:21 pm

      Always on the look out for activities that are educational too 🙂

      Reply
  11. Lukeosaurus And Me says

    January 19, 2016 at 1:47 pm

    This is such an amazing idea! I’ve been looking at doing a few sorting activities with Luke lately, I’ll definitely pin this and try it with him as soon as possible (i’ll have to use something other than pringle tins as this mumma is on a diet…sobbing in the corner)! Ray xx

    Reply
    • Emma Edwards says

      January 19, 2016 at 4:18 pm

      Feed The Duplo Toilet Roll Aliens just doesn’t have the same ring to it!

      Reply
  12. Sarah Doyle - let them be small says

    January 19, 2016 at 8:00 pm

    this is such a great idea – will be trying this with my two soon 🙂
    #toddlerapprovedtuesday

    Reply
    • Emma Edwards says

      January 19, 2016 at 9:15 pm

      Hope they enjoy it as much as Adam did.

      Reply
  13. becky says

    January 23, 2016 at 9:00 pm

    wahhhhh….I jut threw all our Christmas pringle tubes away! but what an excuse to buy more huh!

    Thanks for linking to #ToddlerApprovedTuesday

    Reply
    • Emma Edwards says

      January 26, 2016 at 8:47 pm

      Oh no! Definitely an excuse to buy/eat more!

      Reply

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Emma and Adam

During a difficult pregnancy suffering from Hyperemesis Gravidarum (HG) Emma vowed to make every day an adventure once she had recovered. Adventures of Adam is the outcome of completing a 100 day play challenge with Adam as part of that promise. Emma has a section dedicated to HG friendly play activities so that Mums can still be part of their children’s play whilst they are ill.

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