Color Matching with Bottle Caps

 

You’ll need:

• Bottle caps.
• Colored paper.
• Glue.
• A piece of cardboard.
• Cutting knife, scissors or similar.
• Hole punch (optional).

 

How to make your own Bottle Cap Color Matching Game:

• Glue (or stick) colored paper to bottle caps.
• Glue (or stick) paper in the same colors to a piece of cardboard.
• Have your child match the colors on the bottle caps to the colors on the cardboard.

 

Photos:

 

How it worked for us:

This was fairly easy to do, and the bottle caps are a good size for toddler hands.

I punched the circles that I glued to the bottle caps from colored paper (120 g/m²) with a 1-inch scallop hole punch. I used a ModPodge knock-off on top of the bottle caps and on top of the colored paper.

For the board, I cut 6 cm squares from the same colored paper with the help of the marks on a cutting mat, straight edge and utility knife. The board didn’t come out perfectly {not surprisingly, given the basic tools I used…} but E couldn’t have cared less. 

I had some trouble keeping the colored squares on the cardboard with the ModPodge knock-off, so I decided to keep the board in a Ziploc bag to avoid E trying to pull off the squares. After a few hours of applying pressure to the board, the bond has improved greatly but I still keep it in the bag at all times just in case. {As soon as I finally get a laminator, I’m gonna laminate the heck out of it.}

Either way, it’s a built-in busy bag we can take wherever we go where we might need something for E to do 😉

This was E’s first color matching activity {Well, the first one where she actually matched the colors… With my first version of the Clothespin Color Matching Game, she only focused on the pins, not the colors, for a long time.}, and she got the hang of it right away. She really enjoys matching the colors, and never only does the game once 😉

{In the picture above, she’s not sure about the red and orange but that’s because I didn’t realize it would be really hard to tell them apart in low light conditions.}

I wasn’t sure if the squares were big enough to allow her to match all six colors at the same time but there’s actually plenty of room for her hands.

 

What I learned:

• It’s fun to see with how much enthusiasm E plays this game, and how happy it makes her to match the colors.
• Make sure red and orange aren’t too close on the paper you use.
• ModPodge (or at least my knock-off) does warp paper and cardboard and isn’t the best choice for these materials but a few hours under a big cookbook fixed all issues.
• For the board, the paper could’ve been a tad heavier than the 120 g/m² I used, but it was perfect for the bottle caps.
• You cut better squares with better tools. {Well, I already knew that, but it was a good reminder 😉 }

 

The idea:

There are many ideas for color matching games and for using bottle caps on the Internet. I was inspired to use this technique by this post but since E wasn’t ready for letters yet, I simply applied it to colors.

 

Which color matching game(s) does your child like? Have you made one yourself? Tell me about it in the comments!

 

 

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