Bottle Cap Letters

Like many of you, I've seen some great ideas for using bottle caps in the classroom. Something strange about me- I don't regularly drink anything that comes with plastic lids. Weird, right? Fortunately my very sweet assistant was more than willing to stock me up on lids, so I have a nice collection. A nice collection... that I've had for about 7 months. When I realized I've been wanting to do this project for nearly a year I decided it was high time. When I was finished and discovered it only took about 4 minutes, I felt a little silly for waiting so long. In conclusion, don't be like me- go ahead and create a set of bottle cap letters for yourself today (or as soon as it takes to collect 26 bottle caps)!

Here was my original inspiration. This is from a great blog called Growing in Pre-K created by Eilis Meyer. She has a LOT of brilliant ideas, but the one I'm focusing on today is what she calls her Caterpillar Alphabet which is made from Gatorade lids.

image: http://www.growinginprek.com/abccenter.htm

Things I love about hers: A) the uniformity of the lids; B) the size of the lids; C) the great alphabet stickers. For my own, the lids I have access to are smaller which is fine, but it would be nice to eventually do something with the larger caps. And as much as I like the 3D alphabet stickers I know these are not feasible in my classroom where they'll get peeled off within a week of hitting the shelf. So I decided on my own plan of attack for these guys, which I'm sharing with the world! The best part is that they really do take 5 minutes or less. 

Step 1: Gather your lids. Drink 26 bottles of your favorite beverage, have a coworker glug down some water for you, steal from your children, whatever it takes. 

Step 2: Get some alphabet stickers. I'm using these that I bought in the Target Dollar Spot last year. These are the perfect size to fit inside the lids to bottled water or 20 ounce bottles. The main thing you're looking for is that they will fit inside your lid. I chose to put them on the inside instead of the top because I think they will be more durable this way- less of a chance to pick them off. Only time will tell if this is accurate!

If you don't hoard collect stickers, these are available right now at Target. For $1! There are 5 pages in each of these packages which is a pretty great deal on shiny letter stickers, if you ask me.

 Step 3: Have your rabbit photo bomb the shoot and toss some of the lids aside.

 Step 4: Stick a sticker for each letter to the inside of the lid. I'm telling you, it really is that easy. Ta-da! You made a beautiful set of bottle cap letters.

If you're teaching in a bilingual classroom, feel free to add the fancy letters. You might need some slightly smaller stickers for Ch. Don't freak out about that letter being slightly different than the rest. Or do, who am I do judge.

Seriously, how easy was that?! Congratulations on making an easy tool you can use for literacy activities galore. Go ahead and make tons of them for spelling names or words, or make some with numbers for math activities. Then pat yourself on the back for paying a few bucks on these instead of pawning your worldly belongings for something similar from a teacher store!