Bottle Caps Counting Board – A Brilliant Counting Activity for Toddlers

Inside: This Counting Activity for Toddlers made with just bottle caps and a piece of cardboard!

Bottle caps are gems in my house. They are one of the best materials for making fun learning toys like this bottle cap ice cream counting board! 

This Bottle Cap Ice Cream Counting Board is inspired by these two amazing activities, Counting Scoops by Mother Could and Color matching Pompoms Scoop by Montessori from the Heart.

Hands-On Counting Activity for Toddlers

Use this brilliant hands-on learning toy to introduce toddlers to 1 to 1 correspondence counting:

• The bottle caps help young children visualize what the numbers mean, 1 bottle cap for 1 and 2 bottle caps for 2 and so on. 
• It is also a good visual tool for children see how each subsequent number has 1 more bottle cap than the previous number.
• As the toddlers scoop pompoms into each bottle cap, this activity reinforces the physical meaning of the numbers 1 to 5 and hones their fine motor skills at the same time.

Eventually, my 4yo turned this into a fun pretend play game. I love these child-led play moments! She took my ice cream orders (how many scoops and the flavors of the ice cream we wanted) and had so much fun serving ice cream to me.

What is 1 to 1 correspondence counting?

It is a higher-order counting skill where the children understand the physical meaning to the numbers, 3 mean 3 items. Find more information about this higher-order counting here.

My trick to attach bottle caps to the cardboard?

Glue dots! I like to use glue dots (instead of hot glue gun) because their adhesive strength is good and they can be removed easily from the bottle caps. Once my children are done playing with this counting board, we can easily peel off the glue dots and these bottle caps are ready to be use for another activity again.

How to make this counting board?

• Draw 5 ice cream cones on the cardboard. Write number 1 to 5 on the ice cream cones.
• Stick bottle caps (I used glue dots) above the ice cream cones, according to the numbers.
• Set out this counting board with 15 pompoms and invite your child to scoop and count!

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Need more ideas to use bottle caps?

Here are two more of our favorite activities with bottle caps:

• Color Matching Bottle Caps
• Bottle Caps Letter Matching Board

Pin this activity to your DIY learning board on Pinterest!

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