Create Handmade Toys from Recycled Water Bottles

Use water bottles to create easy and fun handmade toys for your preschooler or toddler. Your child will love to shake, pour, and discover with toys made by you!

Using water bottles and a few fun ideas, you can entertain and teach your kids. Many of these easy to make toys sell for $10-20 in specialty toy stores, but you can make them with a few simple items from around the house:

• Clean, empty water bottles
• Water, corn syrup, and oil
• Glitter
• Food coloring
• Uncooked rice

Have fun!

Materials

• Large clean, empty water bottle or soda bottle
• Uncooked rice
• Small objects that will fit in the top of the water bottle (buttons, hair clips, small toys, shaped beads, dice)
• Index cards
• Pen
• Duct tape or hot glue gun*

Directions

1. Draw a picture of each item on an index card
2. Use a funnel or rolled piece of paper to fill about 1 inch of the bottle with rice
3. Place a few objects in the bottle
4. Repeat steps 2 & 3 until the bottle is filled with rice and you have used all of the objects
5. Secure the cap onto the bottle with hot glue or duct tape

To play

• Your preschooler can roll, shake, or turn the bottle to “spy” the objects
• Older preschoolers can pick an index card and find the matching object in the bottle

Materials

• Small clean, empty, water bottle
• Water
• Oil
• Food coloring

Directions

1. Fill water bottle ½ with water and ½ with oil
2. Place drops of food coloring to get the color you want
3. Secure the cap onto the bottle with hot glue*

• Shake, roll, and turn the bottle to see bubbles
• Talk about what your child sees

Materials

• Small clean, empty, water bottle
• Water
• Corn Syrup
• Glitter

1. Fill water bottle ½ with water and ½ with corn syrup
2. Add glitter to bottle
3. Secure the cap onto the bottle with hot glue*

• Shake, roll, and turn the bottle to see the glitter fall (kind of like a snow globe)
• Talk about what your child sees

• Small clean, empty, water bottle
• Water
• Food coloring
• Dish detergent

Directions

Fill the bottle ¾ full with water Place drops of food coloring to get the color you want Squeeze in some dish detergent Secure the cap onto the bottle with hot glue* Shake the bottle to mix the color and make bubbles

To play

• Your preschooler or toddler can “pour”, shake, and pretend

* Be sure to securely attach the cap back onto the bottle. I have found the best way to do this is by placing hot glue into the cap and then screwing it back onto the bottle.

More Handmade Toys for Preschoolers
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