3 Easy Ways to Use Bottle Caps for Color Matching (VIDEO)

A couple years ago, I made a bottle cap learning activity for my oldest child, and now my youngest can play and learn with it!   This Color Matching and Fine Motor Skills with Recycled Bottle Caps activity is so easy to set up!

Since kids outgrow baby/toddler toys quickly, I try to DIY simple ones with recycled materials.  In an effort to be environmentally conscious and minimize clutter at home, I am trying not to buy any more narrow-ended toys!

I’ll share tips on how to set up the activity and show how we have it available in our play area.

The end of the post has a video demonstration of different ways to play and learn!

I hope your child can enjoy these 3 ways to play and learn colors with recycled bottle caps!

Fine Motor Skills Bottle Caps color matching recycled activity for kids!

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Making learning fun for multilingual children

My children are learning to speak English, Chinese, and Korean.  Since I mainly speak Chinese with my kids, this activity includes Chinese characters.  However, you can apply the concepts to any language.

Chinese is a minority language in our community, meaning that we cannot use this language with most friends and neighbors.  Therefore, I try to make the language as fun as possible at home so that my kids develop positive memories of it.

It’s never too early to surround a child with beautiful Chinese characters, because they are subconsciously learning about everything they see. 

Plus, the Chinese words serve as visual prompts for my kids and I to speak the minority language at home.

Important vocabulary

  • 颜色 (yánsè / color)
  • 红, 橙, 黄, 绿, 蓝, 紫, 粉, (hóng, chéng, huáng, lǜ, lán, zǐ , fěn / red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, pink)
Acrylic paint, paint brush, Sharpie, and Posca paint pen

What you need for the color matching bottle caps activity:

  1. Large and small recycled bottle caps
  2. Colorful dot stickers (we used these 1″ stickers for our large bottle caps) and/or acrylic paint
  3. Sharpie marker or Posca paint pen
  4. Tongs and chopsticks
  5. Optional: pom poms, buttons, paper clips

Safety first – activity for children age 3+

Because pom poms are small, please make sure that children are supervised at all times during the activity.  Although my 2.5-year-old son is playing with it, due to small parts, professionally I should say that the activity is for children ages 3+ who are no longer mouthing.

I usually keep my pediatrician hat separate from here, but I thought I would share safety pearls as I have seen unfortunate accidents firsthand.  This is also a common question that readers contact me about. 

First, it’s normal for babies to explore with their mouth!  Usually, they will be just fine after putting random stuff in their mouth including dirt!!!  However, 3 main dangers to consider:

  1. Choking hazards
  2. Lead or other poison (eg detergent)
  3. In my son’s case, accidentally eating allergic food

Around age 1 (give or take), I start pointing out what things are food and what things are not food.  Food goes in the mouth. Non-food stays out.

I say in a playful way: “Is that food? Noooooo. Can you put that in your mouth? Nooooo.  Can Daddy eat that?  Nooooo.  Can Mommy eat that? Nooooo”  Can 姐姐 eat that? Nooooo”  Can you eat that? Nooooo” etc.  Children usually think it’s funny to say “Nooooo” (or “不可以”)!  Then we talk about things that we can eat & say “yessssss”.

When we’re eating, I will ask “Can you eat that? Yes! Yummy!!” Before we play, I’ll ask “Are these toys or food?”

Consistency is key but also being playful and not shaming.  Both of my children stopped mouthing random things well before age 18 months!

Recycled bottle caps color matching activity for preschoolers and toddlers

How to set up the bottle caps color matching activity:

1. Tape colorful dot stickers or paint inside of bottle cap with desired color.  I painted the inside of the small white bottle caps because we didn’t have small dot stickers at the time, but it needed a few coats to stick to the slippery plastic surface.

2. Write color name on the outside (opposite side) of bottle cap. If the cap is slippery, write the color name with a paint pen (marker might wipe off).  If the cap has a rougher surface, you should be able to write on it with a Sharpie.

Bottle Caps Pom Poms color matching with chopsticks

Ways that toddlers and preschoolers can play and learn:

  1. Using the large bottle caps, cover the small bottle caps so that the color is hidden.  Looking at only the word, guess the color that’s hiding under the large bottle cap.
  2. Turn the large bottle caps upside down so your child can only see the character.  Have your child match it to colored paper or another object with that color.  The color on the other side serves as a control so you know that you have matched the correct word to the color!
  3. Use tongs and chopsticks to pick up pom poms and place inside the cap!

Videos of pom pom bottle cap activities

Montessori Inspired set up of the bottle cap pom pom activity

My kids have a corner behind our living room that has their toys and learning activities.  I rotate the options periodically to keep the area interesting for them.  Sometimes it takes trial and error to figure out the best layout!

In the photo below, you can see that I have a tray with bottle caps and a separate bowl for the pom poms.  The tray is helpful so that he can carry it independently, and it gives boundaries for the pom poms.

For reference, my son usually works on this activity for just a few minutes at a time, which is normal and expected for his age.

However, learning is cumulative, no matter how short it is!

Have you tried this color matching activity with bottle caps?

If you try this activity, please let us know in the comments below! What age(s) are your kid(s), and how did it go? We’d love to hear about your learning experience!

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