Milk Caps Matching Game

Creating a game at home that helps teach children basic vocabulary and also math skills is very simple.  In this post, I will teach you how to take plastic milk caps and make them into a fun matching game based on your own child's interest.  If children are more interested, they are more likely to stay engaged in the activity and come away with a wealth of knowledge.

During this activity, children will learn and develop:

• Basic vocabulary
• Cognitive skills such as matching similarities and recall
• Math skills such as counting, "pairing", and patterning
• Social skills such as turn taking and sharing

To make your own matching game, you will need:

• Plastic milk caps of the same color to avoid confusion

 

• Stickers from the dollar store based on your child's interest (make sure to get duplicates).  The ones I picked out were transportation.

First, make sure the milk caps are completely cleaned and dried.  If they are not, the stickers do not stick as well.  Once this step is completed,  place a sticker on the inside of the milk.  If it doesn't seem to stay as well, you can use a piece of clear tape to reinforce it.  After the stickers are secure, they should look like the picture at the beginning of this post.

Next, flip them over to start the game.  Make sure to mix them up really well.

 

Ta-da!!  You now have a fun, educational game that you can play with your child.

Extension Idea:

If you use different types of milk or you know others who do, you can actually collect quite a few colors of milk caps.  When you gather a good amount of different colored caps, you can use them for making simple or complex patterns and even classifying based on colors.  Milk caps hold a world of possibilities.  

Do you have any other ideas that you would like to share!?