Poking Straws

A student of mine was telling me about her 2 1/2 year old who she had disciplined because he was opening all of the juice boxes at her house. I told her he was probably trying to practice putting the straw in the hole - a hard task little kids often want to master. I thought of this activity for her, but thought Westley would enjoy it too, since he always insists on poking straws in too.
So yesterday I took a canning jar and instead of putting on the lid put on a piece of wax paper, then put the ring on as tight as I could. Using stir sticks I let him poke holes in it. If you get too many holes close together it rips a big hole in the wax paper, so you either need not too many straws, or a bigger surface area.

Will could not poke his own holes but enjoyed putting the straw through holes I made for him

Westley then insisted on drinking out of the jar. This part actually turned out beneficial. Since the jar was clear I just put in a little water and told him to watch how when the jar was tilted the straw wasn't in any water. I showed him how you have to move the straw into the "deep end" to get the water out. He seemed to understand this concept better. Hopefully it helps when he drinks out of a cup/box with a straw in the future.