Make your own card holder!!!

Do you have little hands that can't hold cards?  Or perhaps your students have fine motor difficulties?  For my students it is a little of both.  There are so many great educational card games that bloggers have created and that already exist!  We like playing Uno, obviously it is education, that's just one reason.  But playing cards is also a great way to practice a ton of skills! Turn taking, listening, following directions, conversation, the list goes on and on.

The problem we were having in my room was being able to hold all those cards and keep them organized and focus on the game, overwhelming much?

I've seen photos of this on Pinterest but for the life of me I could not get back to the original source.  If you know it let me know.  

Your very own card-holder, these sell for like five bucks each at the big box stores, I made six of them for free because I asked if anyone had any pool noodles they would like to share with my classroom.
Here is how we did it:

Supplies:

• pool noodle
• sharp knife
• yard stick or ruler
• permanent marker.

Start with a basic pool noodle!

Measure about 16 inches in on one of the noodles and mark it with your marker.

Slice it! We got three sections out of one noodle but Im sure not all noodles are the same size.

Here's our three.

Next you have to slice it down the middle, we found it easiest to stand it up and work together to slice it.  When the noodle was laying on it's side you couldn't it quite as straight.

Do this to all three sections.  You'll end up with 6 sections that should sit nice and flush to the tabletop.

After you get them all cut, you need your permanent marker again.  On each noodle, mark a straight line and draw it from end to end.  This will help you make a really straight cut and it will also help when the kids use the noodles.  The black line shows the kids where they need to put the cards when it comes time to use the new card holders!

When you're all finished it should look something like this!

It has been so great using them in my classroom!  A great asset for card playing! and super easy to make!