Make your own string phone

What you need

• Plastic/foam disposable cups String/rope
• Optional: you can paint or decorate the cups too

Benefits

Communication and language, vocabulary, improves and develops listening and attention skills.

The experience

• Cut a long piece of string - you can experiment with different lengths but perhaps 3 metres is a good place to start.
• Poke a small hole in the bottom of each cup.
• Thread the string through each cup and tie knots at each end to stop it pulling through the cup.
• Move into position with you and a friend holding the cups at a distance that makes the string tight (making sure the string isn't touching anything else).
• One person talks into the cup while the other puts the cup to their ear and listens, can you hear each other?

Experiment with different conversations, ask your child to repeat what you are saying through the telephone to encourage listening or sing songs to each other a line at a time. Have fun!