How to make cheerleader pom poms

I’ve had lots of fun making some cheerleader pom poms for my webinar: Let songs and rhythm spark imagination and learning online.

I thought I’d share the steps for making them here so that if you or your students want to have some fun, you can too!

Materials needed:

paper:  tissue paper/crepe paper/soft paper bags/sheets of coloured paper  (whatever you can lay your hands on!)

tape:  electrical tape or parcel tape or sellotape

scissors or pinking shears

Now, I am based at home, and as well as writing materials and preparing webinars, seminars and activities for teachers and students, I love handicrafts!  So, I had a choice of materials available to use.

I realise that a lot of you and your students might not have all these things to hand, but where there is a will, there’s a way!

You can use most kinds of soft paper for the pompoms.  And I’m sure you could wrap the handles in elastic bands, labels from your printer, shoe laces if necessary!  Haven’t got time right now, but when I have, I might try a more frugal version!

1   Lay your sheets of paper on top of each other.  I was using large sheets of tissue paper.  (You could also use sheets of A4 paper, but your pompoms will be smaller than mine.)

2   Next, fold them in half.

3   Then, cut strips from the open end of the paper towards the centre, stopping about 3-4 cm from the fold.

4   Cut down the middle line so that you have two sets of sheets with the strips.

5   Start rolling up the part of the paper that you did not cut into strips.  This is the pom pom handle.

6   When you have rolled up all the paper,  you will have your pom pom.  You need to cover the handle with sticky tape.

7   Make a second pom pom by rolling up the other halves with the strips.

The last time I made pom poms was for a fun sports day with friends. I wonder when we’ll be doing that again? Fond and fun memories.

And now, to practise waving my pom poms!