Plastic Straws: Unique Uses & Fun Projects for Kids of All Ages

Plastic drinking straws have been around for a long time and, although used primarily for drinking, have also been converted to a number of other uses. No matter what your age, you can have fun trying out some of these unique uses for plastic drinking straws. 

Art Projects

An eye-catching mobile for a child’s room can be made by cutting out a circle of colored cardboard and using a hole-punch to make holes around the outside edge of the circle. Then, using a needle threaded with sturdy thread or yarn, run a 4-6 inch piece of thread through the top of each plastic straw you wish to include in your mobile. Poke one end of the thread from each straw through one of the circles in the piece of cardboard and tie securely to the other end. Using different colored straws and cutting each one to a different length with scissors, makes the mobile even more interesting. Attach the mobile to the ceiling with another piece of thread stapled to the center of the cardboard circle. A fan in the room will enhance movement of the mobile.

A great “kids” project using plastic straws is mystery painting. Give each child a large piece of paper and drop a few drops of thin, watery paint on it. Let them use a plastic straw to blow the paint gently across the paper to create mystery designs. After the designs dry, have each child tell the others about his or her own painting.

Plastic straws work very well for making strong center holes for hand made beads. Simply cut a few thin plastic straws into the lengths you want your finished beads to be. Then mold your clay or bead material around the straw piece. When your beads are dry and painted, they will be easy to string using the uniform-sized hole provided by the plastic straw sections.

Green plastic straws make wonderful stems for a variety of paper flowers, and paper pinwheels look good mounted on any color of straw.

Three-dimensional art can be created by cutting pieces of various colored plastic straws and gluing them to a drawing. Blue straws for the sky, green ones for grass, etc.

Musical Instruments