sorting bottle caps

We have TONS of bottle caps thanks to our cook and donations from parents. Since we were running out of places to store them I figured it was time for a sorting activity. I set out different colored paper onto which the children could match the caps. That was all that was needed as the children intuitively 'got' the intended invitation. 

The children pointed out that I was missing a few colors so I added black, tan and purple paper as well...

There were only a few 'tricky' colors that did not quite match (like a cap that was an orangish-yellow). But they indeed drove us all nuts because they didn't quite fit in either category. 


The end! 

3D Robots

A little while ago H expressed his interest in robots. Today I asked him if he would like to create another robot using recyclable materials. Indeed he did. We worked with wood glue and duct tape to create this masterpiece:

After he drew a representation in his journal and told me about it:

"It has a weapon. It can go to a planet."


While H was creating his robot M decided to make one too:
Journal:

M had this to say:


First the white thing's under the robot. Then the arms are over here so he can wave. The circles are so in case the robot falls. And he can talk a lot and he has a helmet too. And then it has two eyes. And there is  the part of his body. And that's his neck. And this is his head and this is his chin. And that's all. 


C wanted to create a robot too, but she chose to add objects to paper, perhaps because she created her journal first, then created her robot or because we glued to paper previously:

C said hers was a robot girl with hair and buttons. 


The end! 

animal houses from recyclable materials

This recyclable material can be found in cases that carry glass bottles containing (ahem) adult beverages. I snatched them out of the boxes before they went in the garbage at my parent's house. It says something that my parents hardly ever even look at me strange anymore.


Anyhoo, I added them to the table while the children were playing with their animals and sure enough they became little animal houses.

There wasn't a lot of one-to-one correspondence going on and I attribute that to how tall the house walls are. I plan on disassembling them and cutting them down a bit to see if that helps. We tried to get these to stand upright but the material isn't stable enough. Perhaps if we back it with cardboard that would help. It will be interesting to see how the children use this material as I think it has a lot of potential.

The end!