Sorry I have not posted in a while! Things have been really busy for me these days. I had several classes to develop and teach along with preparing handouts for my sessions at the I Teach K conference this summer. But I am back in the swing of things!
With Earth Day coming up, I thought I would share this activity with you! This is one of those activities where you can get a lot out of it. Not only can you use it to talk about reusing items in a different way, but if you are working with having your students show you they know how to create a pattern, this activity is perfect for that! I love when activities are simply and full of learning possibilities! But I have to admit, this is a really cute activity as well and kids from all ages love it! Even my kids loved creating these whimsical creations! All you need are the following materials:
used water bottle
- colorful sharpie markers
- pair of scissors
Here is what you do:
1. Have the kids color the water bottle. If you want to connect the activity to math, have them first draw their pattern out. This is a great way to reinforce the idea of ABAB or ABCABC or even the ABCDABCD patterns! I have even created a red, white, and blue pattern which will be hanging from our trees on the 4th of July!
2. Staring at the bottom of the bottle, use the scissors to cut a small hole. Then you simply cut around the bottle.
3. Continue cutting around the bottle until you get to the top. At this point, you can actually pull the bottle apart and it should stretch out.
4. Tie a string through the opening of the water bottle.
5. Hang and enjoy your beautiful work of art! For a video showing you how to cut the bottle, click here.
I hope you have as much fun as I did with this quick and easy project.
For more information or for the lesson plan that goes with this, click here!
To see a video on how to cut your bottles, just click here. Check out my video of our creations that we created to celebrate spring! Just click here! Sorry about the sound! It was really windy when I took the video!
Have fun with this one and I would love to see your student’s creations! Share them on my Facebook page which you can find here!
Go Science!
