This is a GREAT road trip activity, and if the glue is strong enough perfect for an airplane too! What I love about this is that it’s so adaptable, any age group can engage with this simple discovery bottle and have fun while they do. Using beads instead of rice is a wonderful choice for those of you uncomfortable with using food for anything other than eating. Also, when your child has tired from this you can open it and use the beads for something else. The letter matching game is a fun way to work on matching the uppercase bead letters with their lowercase buddies. I teach all letters in tandem because that is how children encounter them. Check out how we made this alphabet bead discovery bottle and letter matching game!
Gather your materials. You will need some plastic beads, ours are pony beads that were sent to us from the folks at Craftprojectideas.com, but any beads will do, alphabet beads, a VOSS water bottle ( any will work but trust me these are the BEST for discovery bottles), some plain old paper, a marker, and a pencil.
Start by filling your bottle with the colorful pony beads.
Add in some of the letter beads.
Keep layering until the bottle is almost full, you want to leave some space so the beads can move inside the bottle.
Pop the top on and glue it on if you choose.
Write out the alphabet in lowercase letters ( the beads are uppercase) for the super simple matching game.
Invite a helper to find some letters! My daughter is in kindergarten and she found this fun, but easy. Next time I would have her try to spell words. With younger preschoolers just have them discover the letters, look for their initials, and have fun!
Dawn says
Such a great idea. I will be doing this pronto!!!!! Thanks so much for sharing
Allison McDonald says
You are so welcome Dawn!