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Message in a bottle

Outdoor Games for Preschool, Early Years and all weathers ..

Message in a Bottle outdoor play activities 
for Preschool and older ..


 This message bottle game is great for numeracy and mark making play.
Indoors or out, use it in your water tray, sand play - at the beach or in role play!

Themes the game idea would fit nicely into could include :
Pirates
Recycling
Floating vessels and cargos
Correspondance and communications.
Washed up bottles for treasure mapping - counting - and other problem solving ideas ..

Team work and observation skills are explored as the children write, launch and propel their bottle into the water ...

Junk model to make cargo ships - how many bottles will the ship transport in one go ..
Stain and age some paper and make your own treasure island maps - roll, tie and secure inside the bottle before throwing 'out to sea ..

Extend where necessary to float and sink evaluations - object weights - wet and dry.



DOWNLOAD THE Bottle Messages PDF


An excellent and traditional rhyme - 10 green bottles can be read here:

Ten Green Bottles


10 Green bottles standing on the wall -  A Traditional rhyme illustrated

Use it in connection with this play idea and build your own numberline resource,  
collect, match and count activities..



To play a Bottle message game collect:

 10 or more clear plastic or coloured bottles
Wide necked and shallow are best so that the Children can put their notes in and remove them with ease.
We used washed & cleaned drink bottles.
 Sand and / or water - Pebbles and stones to set the scene and enable the play
 Crayons, printed bottle message shapes and scissors
print and cut out from the PDF above.

PDF now contains empty bottle shapes for you to add your own game initiatives to ..
 

Free play

  Let the children cut out their own paper message and with crayons or pencils mark or draw their message onto it.
 Show how - when folded the message cannot be seen once inside the bottle.
 Screw the lid on - tightly if it is to float in the water or launch ...
 With puffer bottles - billows or by blowing see if  the bottle can be 'powered to a friend or pre prepared 'bottle harbour on the other side of the water tray ..
 Who will read the message and what will happen next ...
 

Pre Play 
 Prepare the bottle messages with individual number - secure the lids and leave floating in the tray..
 When the children come to play allow them to remove the lids take out the number and order it on a numberline for recognition 
 Include additional messages, crayons and scissors so that the play can continue with the children's own message games.
  

 Bottle Message Display board

If you are displaying the Children and Staff's bottle messages on the wall, prepare the backing paper and any borders before hand.

Show how to sticky tac the messages and any own drawing of bottles / beach to the board - include names and dates and a title ..
 
And have fun ..



Forum article for further discussion ..

 

Back to Outdoor fun and game titles ..