Grab those empty bottles and caps and turn them into five easy activities for toddler and preschool learning.
Learning activities are best when they are fun, engaging, and simple for you to prepare; which is what these activities offer. Bottles, caps, and hands on fun with your little ones.
Trial and Error Matching:
Matching the caps to the correct bottle.
We used five different bottles with five matching caps, but you could use however many you have on hand.
Just lay out the separated bottles and caps, then invite your kiddo(s) to match the correct cap to the correct bottle.
My 3 1/2 year old and my 1 1/2 year old both enjoyed this challenge.
Sequencing with Bottles:
Put the bottles in order from largest to smallest or smallest to largest.
I was amazed that my 3 1/2 year old decided on this order because the white cap bottle is bigger than the orange cap bottle; however, he stated that the white cap was smaller.
Such a great point and actually an idea for a variation in this activity is to just use the caps in the sequence.
An awesome learning moment!
Sound Sensory Bottles:
Put different objects in each bottle and compare their sounds.
I chose five objects ahead of time to place in the bottles; a gel pen, applesauce pouch cap, pom pom, scrabble tile, and a counting bear.
I suggest choosing hard and soft objects for sound variation.
Both kiddos enjoyed shaking the bottles to determine which bottle made the loudest and softest sound.
Then of course, the bottles became musical instruments and we became a three-person rock band.
Lesson learned: after rock band we took the caps off to take out the objects and my 1 1/2 year old thought it would be fun to eat some of the objects.
Good thing I caught it quick!
Fine Motor Rolling Cap Races:
Roll each cap to see which one goes the furthest.
This activity was actually created by my 3 1/2 year old as he was observing the caps. He decided to roll them on the floor and we made it into a game.
I asked various questions to guide his learning. Which caps roll? Why do some of the caps roll and others don’t? Why did the blue cap go the furthest?
Art with Bottle Caps:
Cap creatures created by tracing each cap and using some art supplies to add faces and color.
We placed all five caps on a piece of card stock and traced them with a pencil.
I offered my help, but my little guy wanted to do it on his own; so the circles aren’t perfect, which I actually think adds to the “creature.”
After tracing, we used crayons to add eyes and then used water color paints to add some color.
You could continue to add to the creatures with pipe cleaners, stickers, googly eyes, etc…, but my little guy was content with his creation.
Will you do one of these activities at a time or set a block of time to do all 5?
5 Fun Learning Activities with Bottles and Caps on handsonaswegrow.com
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