Recycled Bottle Cap Fridge magnets

The Hare and the Tortoise story  is a favorite topic for discussion at home..

The Original Story goes like this …
The story concerns a hare who ridicules a slow-moving tortoise and is challenged by him to a race. The hare soon leaves the tortoise behind and, confident of winning, decides to take a nap midway through the course. When he awakes, however, he finds that his competitor, crawling slowly but steadily, has arrived before him.

The moral of the story we gather is that 

1. It’s ok if you are slow .. but you need to be determined to complete the race no matter what. 
2. It’s not ok to ridicule someone for their disability or shortcoming.. 
3. It’s important to not lose track midway and get distracted.

In our version, I sometimes change  the story saying the Rabbit gets injured midway and when the tortoise catches up with him, Instead of running to finish the race, he gets down and helps his friend in need and they both cross the line together. Lil P lovessss this version. Its always nice to help your friends, right mumma?

Sometimes I let the Rabbit win and the tortoise goes and congratulates his friend. This version I had told her when she ran a race with her friends and her best friend won .. Lil p invariably is among the last ones to finish a running race.. She is Flat Footed. Telling something via a story is so much easier.

Made the above fridge magnets using soda bottle caps & foam ..

We had a bunch of Soda bottle caps that we had kept aside for recycling and were wondering what to make with them. And then I read Lil P the Hare & the Tortoise story. Read full post here.

Lil P immediately wanted to make a Hare & Tortoise craft. I thought the caps would be ideal for this project. Needless to say, the fridge magnets have become very popular at home. It helps Lil P weave stories with the fridge as a canvas story board while I cook in the kitchen. Time well spent I say. I also like to encourage recycling stuff and that each item can be reused, recycled & turned into something useful.

Recycled Bottle cap Fridge Magnets
You’ll need –

• Soda bottle caps – 3 in number
• Acrylic colors – Pink, Yellow, Green
• Markers in black.
• Foam – Yellow, Pink
• Cotton ball for the rabbit’s tail
• Googly Eyes – 3 in number
• Glue, scissors
• Small circular magnets – 3 in number
• Some play dough or air dry clay.

To make the tortoise –

• Take a bottle cap and using fingers spread a generous amount of yellow and green acrylic colors on it till its fully covered.
• Set aside to dry
• Draw a tortoise body on Yellow Foam / Chart paper.
• Cut to shape.
• Once the cap is dry, glue on some air dry clay / play dough on the underside.
• Glue on the magnet in the clay
• Now glue on the chart paper / Foam to the underside of the cap. The layers are in this order foam , magnet, clay , bottle cap.
• Add accents using a marker pen – The patterns on its shell & a smiley mouth.
• Stick on googly eyes to have a tortoise magnet ready.

To make the rabbit

• Color two bottle caps pink.
• Set aside to dry
• Cut two ear shapes and bunny feet in pink foam or chart paper.
• Once the caps are dry, use Glue ( araldite) to glue them together side by side.
• Stick on the ears, tail & feet.
• Stick on a googly eye & draw whiskers.
• Fill the backsides of the soda cap with clay or play dough and press in two magnets underneath. Use glue to secure all in place.

Have you used soda caps in any other way? I would love to hear about it.

This is the theme for Artsy-Craftsy-May .. Do link in your posts with arts & craft activities inspired by your child’s favorite books.