Skip to main content

Pumpkin Magnetic Discovery Bottles

It's fall here in Michigan. We've been busy...... It has been quite a wet and rainy season for us, but that doesn't stop us from finding some fun things to do, both inside and out!

One of our favorite books to read lately has been:

So, I thought...why not create a discovery bottle to go along with it!
We took an empty 2 liter bottle, and started to add pieces of pipe cleaners to it.



We added small clippings of green and we made 16 pumpkins:
To make each pumpkin, we took a short piece of green pipe cleaner and wrapped it with orange pipe cleaners until it looked right. (Most of the time it took 2 full orange pipe cleaners to give the pumpkins the shape we wanted.) I also added numbers to the bottle. After I printed them out, I added a paperclip to each number to make them magnetic. After we were all done, I sealed the top with some hot glue, and reinforced it with a couple of layers of duct tape! Viola- Magnetic Discovery Bottle. The children have been having a great time using our magnet wands to move the pumpkins and vines up and down the bottle!





This time of year, the children have also been buzzing about Halloween! They have had some very interesting costume creations over the past few days!



They've been dressing up and talking about their costumes for this year. (Mr Allan and I were fish a few years back, and the children love to use our old costumes for play!)

Are you dressing up this year?


Comments

Deborah said…
I am not familiar with that book! Love the 16 pumpkin discovery bottle!

Popular posts from this blog

A Few Ideas With Marker Caps (As Promised)

Yesterday, I hope I convinced you not to throw away your markers that "don't work." Today, I will share with you a few ideas for what to do with all of the caps. The possibilities are nearly endless, but here are a few of our recent creations: 1) A Leprechaun/Fairy Ladder/Rope Ladder: 2) #1 if not permanently secured can also double as a rope bridge: 3) #1/#2 can also be made into a train track for your homemade trains :). (No photo available) 4) You can use them as beads for a necklace: 5) You could make them into a wind chime. (No photo available). 6. You can use them as small manipulatives to count, sort, and make patterns with. (No photo available). 7) You could use them as playing pieces in your own homemade board game. (No photo available). 8) You could put them on a wire and glue them in place to make a twirling whirly-gig. 9) You could top them with a lid from a milk jug to make tiny tables or toadstools. 10) You could make them...

"The Markers Don't Work!"

How may times have you heard, "Ms. (fill your name in here), this marker doesn't work!" I know I hear it all the time. Sometimes it is because our little friends forget to replace the caps, and sometimes the markers have just been "all used up!" What do you do with all those markers that just don't work? Please don't tell me that you throw them out, try this instead: First, sort your markers out. Put the caps in one container ( save those too, I'll show you what you can do with them in tomorrow's post) and the markers in another. I have a box for the markers that "don't work" for the children to place them into every time they run across one. You can also have the children help you test the markers periodically to sort out the ones that need to be removed from the "working set." When it comes time to use "the markers that don't work," we use a small sponge paint roller to roll water onto our card...

Our DIY Light Tables

There has been a lot of buzz about light tables over at Teach Preschool on Facebook . Deborah has collected some great ideas for light table play and has been experimenting with making her own table over on the Teach Preschool blog.   I thought I would share with you our two light tables and how we made them. This first table is one that we put together with some scrap wood pieces, an old plexi-glass door from an entertainment center, and a couple of aquarium lights. Total Cost = $0. (We had everything on hand.)  The table needs a little bit of tweaking. (It is on my to do list).  Basically, we made a frame of wood around the plexi-glass and placed the lights under it. Our DIY skills in putting this together were far from expert, so the frame has a couple of gaps (and the reused wood is warped). We plan to try a new frame and use some caulk to seal any gaps.  We also plan to attach the lights to the side of the frame instead of just placing them on the f...