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.
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Hands-On Counting Activity for Toddlers
Use this brilliant hands-on learning toy to introduce toddlers to one to one 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.
Related: Your child needs to practice Stable Order when learning to count.
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
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!
Related: Give your child more opportunities to practice with more number activities.
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Need more ideas to use bottle caps?
Check out this list of 20+ Learning Activities with Bottle Caps and Pouch Lids!
I also used bottle camps in this Rainbow Heart Activity Using Loose Parts.
And lastly, here are two more of our favorite activities with bottle caps:
Pin this activity to your DIY learning board on Pinterest!
joanne Vialva says
Hello Fynn,
I'm a humble Mom of one (who is 29 months old.) I just wanted to pop in and say THANK YOU so much for sharing this idea and craft with us.
I've just completed mines (did all the way up to the number 10😊). It looks amazing and I'm truly thankful to God for allowing me to come across your craft.
God bless you in Jesus Name and keep up the great work.
All the best.
Warmest regards,
Joanne