Wednesday, May 27, 2009

Ecolovies ~ I Spy Bottle

My friend over at Her Cup Overfloweth made this last week and I couldn't wait to try it. Everything about it I already had. I used a large tall quart mason jar... I know it's glass, but they really are sturdy and I don't keep plastic around much (even Logan has glass drinking glasses).


First I wandered around and picked up tiny things. I have an obsession with tiny things so it took all of about 4 minutes to gather the things up for this jar. In there I have tiny things like carrots, milk jugs, and wooden books from their doll house stuff (anyone who wants to see my craftiest crafts... check out the doll house pictures), tiny shells and stones from the nature table stuff, small rocks and heart shaped glass pebbles, a tiny clothes pin, a couple of glass marbles that had peace signs and quotes on them (for the older kiddos), and a sweet little glow in the dark frog. Then I filled the jar 3/4 of the way with short grain rice. At first I over filled it, thinking that it would be better, but it really doesn't uncover the stuff quite as well when there isn't a bunch of headroom, so if you try this, bare that in mind.

After that, it just takes mixing it up for a few minutes, giving it to a toddler and watching the delight!

Logan had a blast with it. He spent about a half an hour just turning it and looking for the frog. He would find the rock and I swear he called it three different things. One was "a bug!". lol! It certainly was a perfect Eco-friendly craft.


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7 comments

Sarah said...

I made one of those a few months ago. It kept Lakin enthralled for over an hour the first time, then they all took turns for another 30 min at least. I based it off a game I saw in a catalog....but haven't gotten around to making the game part yet.

Val in the Rose Garden said...

If you find the game Sadie, would you send the link to me? I would love to have a game like that for the olders. They think it's cool, but not like Logan does. ;)

Val

Dina said...

You are so resourceful - I have seen these I Spy bags sold on etsy and this is a great way to do it!

thanks for sharing - I love it (as always!) :)

p.s. I also love tiny things!! ha ha

Sarah said...

Here's an Amazon search for it: http://www.amazon.com/s/?ie=UTF8&keywords=find-it+game&tag=googhydr-20&index=aps&hvadid=3559804527&ref=pd_sl_5s2rkgzaik_e basically the jar, a timer and a list of what is inside....they draw a card/object and have the timed amount to find that object in the jar.

Anne said...

What a great idea! Thanks for sharing:)

Last Summer I got an empty ice cream container filled it with water and little toys and pop it in the freezer and next day took it out all frozen.
The kids had a great time trying to excavate the toys out of the ice. Great for the little ones on a hot day

Chell said...

FUN!!

Val in the Rose Garden said...

Sadie: Thanks for the link... that is a great game!

Anne: that is a great idea! I may have to do that for my kiddos later in the summer. :)

Val

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