Daily Activity Pinwheels

I run a pretty loose ship during the summer, but I do require my kids to to a little math and reading, and help out a little more with cleaning during the summer. I wanted a way for my kids to be accountable for some daily tasks without me having to always be asking them. Of course, I also wanted it not to be an eyesore, so I came up with these Daily Activity Pinwheels.

These are the supplies I used for this project.

• We R Memory Keepers Pinwheel Punch Board
• We R Memory Keepers Pinwheel Attachments
• We R Memory Keepers DIY Party Cardstock Pad
• We R Memory Keepers DIY Party Patterned Paper Pad
• Bazzill Smoothies Huckleberry Pie
• Pebbles Basics Ash Dot
• Mason Jars
• Paint for the Mason Jars (I used Krylon Spray Paint)

I have the We R Memory Keepers Pinwheel Punch Board and LOVE it. You can make this project without it, but the punch board makes creating pinwheels super fast and extra easy. 

I used my Pinwheel Punch Board to make 2 different sizes of pinwheels. I made a 3" pinwheel and 4" pinwheel for each individual pinwheel.

 To be able to have a double pinwheel, all you need to do is cut one pinwheel on the A side of the guide (Here this 3" pinwheel is lined up with the white lines of the guide).

Then, cut your second pinwheel on the B side of the guide (this 4" pinwheel is lined up with the red lines of the guide).

When everything was punched and cut, I assembled my pinwheels with the Pinwheel Attachments. They fit right on the paper straws, and the attachments allow the pinwheels to spin like real pinwheels. Something my kids definitely find fun!

I also attached little paper tags to each pinwheel. I have 2 boys, and each one has 4 daily tasks  (thus, 4 pinwheels each for a total of 8 pinwheels). The 4 daily tasks are: Reading, Math, Cleaning, and Free Choice. My kids read every day, so that one's a fun one for them. The math pinwheel counts if they do a math work sheet, flash cards, or play some math games on the computer. For cleaning, they have to come get a task from me (dust, clean your room, etc.). Free choice is pretty much what it sounds like. They can do just about anything that doesn't involve a screen (bake cookies with me, play with the neighbor, play LEGOS, work on a craft project)...they just have to tell me what it is they're doing for their free choice that day.

We're in the middle of painting our walls, so I wanted something that I could set out instead of hang on a wall, so placing the pinwheels in painted mason jars fit the bill. We put them in the center of our kitchen table, and they have the added bonus of being a great conversation piece at supper time. My husband gets to hear all about what the did for free choice that day, or they tell dad all about how they organized something during cleaning time.

So each morning our pinwheel jars start out looking like this. Each kid has his own tasks in his own jar (grey pinwheels for one kid and aqua pinwheels for the other).

Then as they complete their task, they move the pinwheel with that tag on it from their jar into the big blue jar. By supper time the blue jar is filled and the white jar is empty. It has the added joy of being a fun summer decor item, too!