If you’ve been to my workshops I always mention this idea. It’s a great way to involve parents and get some cool materials for your science center.
What do you need to do ahead of time?
Run off copies of my discovery bottles from my website (May, 2012). Send home a letter to your parents similar to the one below along with directions for one of the bottles:
Dear Parents,
We are excited that your child is going to participate in his or her first SCIENCE FAIR this week. Please help your child make a “discovery bottle” using the attached directions. You are welcome to look on the internet to find another bottle that you’d like to make. (Just search “discovery bottles” or “sensory bottles” for more ideas.)
Water bottles are perfect for this project. Soak the bottle in warm water or blow with a hair dryer to remove the label. The only difficult part is removing the sticky glue left on the bottle. (I’ve found the easiest thing to do is just put a piece of clear packaging tape over the sticky part.) You’ll find most of the materials for making these bottles in a junk drawer or in your kitchen cabinet.
Please send the bottle back to school this Friday. For our science fair we’ll let each child “show and share” how they made their bottle. We’ll create a special science center so the children can revisit the bottles and discover and explore over the next few weeks.
We hope you’ll stop by and see all of the creative ways children can recycle bottles and LEARN!
Note! The only thing you’ll need to do is glue the lids on with E6000 or a similar glue. Shake, rattle, and roll those bottles!
Of course, you'll want to award a "participation" ribbon to each child!
What a great way to get students excited about SCIENCE!