1) How about freezing water in different containers. Put these in your water table and have the children guess which container made which ice cube. 2) Container Ideas Art Ideas: Box Sculptures - save lots of little boxes all shapes and sizes. A good place to get boxes would be from a foreign auto repair place They have lots of little boxes from parts such as spark plugs. Also Toblerone (sp?) chocolate boxes are triangular and fun to include. The children arrange and stack their boxes together with white glue, to make a box sculpture and the next day, paint the boxes different colors. Sensory Exploration: Save different clean clear plastic containers from dish washing soap, spices (shaker pried off), or shampoo. Collect each kind in a sample size and a medium size. The children can fill the containers with colored rice. Container Snack Idea: Serve fruit salad in orange halves. Group Project: Half gallon Milk Carton House: Have the parents save and donate all their empty milk cartons. Make a BIG house out of them - permanently gluing them together. A few years ago when I visited the Boston Children’s Museum, they had a permanent enclosure made out of milk cartons for their block area. Bean Bag Toss - stand behind a line on the floor, the children take turns pitching bean bags into a container or basket. Can also cut empty clean detergent jugs into scoops for tossing bean bags back and forth. TABLE GAMES Lid Match Game - I don’t know where I got this idea - maybe from this loop? Save lots of different small gift boxes used for jewelry - with lift off lids. Have the children match the boxes to their lids. Buy a package of small colored baskets (sold at Easter time) . The children sort buttons by colors into the little basket containers. Small milk cartons - cut off the tops so that one is short, medium and tall. Cover all three with the same color construction paper. Provide plastic straws in the same color, cut short, medium or long to sort into the containers. 3) Bottle theme • COLORED BUBBLES BOTTLE. Fill a plasitc pop bottle one third full with water. Add tempera paint & about 1/3 cup of liquid detergent. Let the children shake the bottle to make colored bubbles. I like to tape the cap on using masking tape. • DANCING YARN BOTTLE. Put numerous pieces of yarn cut in short pieces (about 3 to 6 inches) into a plastic pop bottle. Fill the bottle with water. Let the children shake the bottle to make the yarn dance. • SWIRLING OBJECTS BOTTLE. Fill a plastic pop bottle half full with water. Add some food coloring. Then add small, light plastic toys, plastic sequins, beads, items that float & some that do not. Let the children shake the bottle to make the objects swirl around. •Cut small squares of tissue paper and "paint" them on the jars with 1/2 glue-1/2 water let dry and put a magnet on the inside of the top - a great paper clip holder gift for mom or dad •sand art - and then hot glue the lid on. •snow shakers - glue tiny figures inside of lid with hot glue, let dry, fill with water and a spoon full of glitter and then hot glue lid on •BABY DAY CARE PLAY IDEA - the babies in our room loved the lids. Send them through the dishwasher in a mesh bag tied to the top rack and then put them in a wipe box. The kids play with these for hours. Even the older kids love them. They pretend they are hamburgers, money, hockey pucks to slide on the table, etc. At the end of the day, tie them up in the bag and send them through the dishwasher again. •Mix Elmer's glue with some water. Then the children paint the jars with the glue mixture. Then stick different pieces of cut tissue paper (use a variety of colors and shapes). After a child is done covering the jar, paint over the tissue with the glue mixture again. Let them dry on a cookie sheet or foil. After dry, place a votive candle in them. •Ocean in a (baby food jar) bottle- Fill bottle half full with mineral oil. Add blue food coloring until oil is deep blue. Pour in rubbing alcohol until bottle is full. Hot glue on lid. Add some small sea shells if the kids want to. •Use the baby food jars for sand art. Use the following recipe to make the colored sand and and layer the different colors however the kids want it. Then glue the lids on. (SAND ART RECIPE If any of you have priced the sand, it can be quite expensive. A teacher said they use Salt and powder tempera paint. It works great. You need about 2-3 Tablespoons of Tempera paint - 1 lb. salt. We ordered the salt from a food wholesaler for $5. 45/50lbs. and the Tempera paint cost 1. 89 a bottle for 16 oz.) •Use them for x-mas as adventswreath! Fill goodies in 24 Jars, covered with red and green cloth, cut suares of material, fasten with elasticbands. Covers are painted with acrylic paint, decorate any way you like. Use a cakeplate and line up Jars in a circle. Each morning starting Dec. 1st the children get to take one Jar and open it, to find small candies or other goodies in it. You might want to make 1 wreath for each 5 4 to 5 children, use large Jars! •Make shakers for Mother's Day and paper weights for Father's Day! •Use those jars for odds and ends for art supplies, and use the tops of jars to put Tempera paint into, for small amounts for each child. 4) An extension to the container unit might be recycling. I try to encourage my students to recycle. We have a blue box in our room for paper. When we go on walks we talk about the environment. I pick up cans or bottles with plastic gloves and explain they should not pick up dirty containers themselves. 5) ~~~Rain Gauge~~~ Materials needed Drink another pop keep the bottle masking tape permnament marker ruler Cut off the top of the bottle just past the shoulder (still do not know what to call it :-) Take off label Cut masking tape the height of the bottom part of the bottle and affix to bottle. Take ruler and have kids mark off 1 inch, 2 inch, 3 inch.... on the masking tape. Take the top half that you cut off and invert it into the bottom to use like a funnel. Set outside in an open area and wait for rain. 6) Book: One Magic Box by Roger & Mariko Chouinard Story Prop: Teacher makes a colorful eye-catching box, tied with ribbon, stars stuck to it and 15 pipe cleaner pieces twisted aroung diff. places on the ribbon. Have the children recall parts of the story by asking questions.......How many locks does the magic box have?.........How many stars?.......Where did the magic box come from? The children can help count the stars on the box you made, they can count the locks (pipecleaner pieces), and children can come up and untwist the locks as you prepare to open the box. When you lift the lid, have ea child come up , close their eyes and reach in to pull out a surprise. (fill the box with sm trinkets that the children can take home with them.) Book: The lady and the Alligator Purse by Nadine Westcott or Maebelle's Suitcase by Tricia Tusa Activity: After reading a book about a purse or suitcase have the children make purses/suitcases from empty cereal boxes. Cut off one narrow side (this will be the top of purse) and add a sturdy strap, long enough to go over the child's shoulder. The children can decorate their purses/suitcases and place things in it.