Make a Valentine’s Day Word Jar

At Sage Tots Childcare, we like to reuse, reduce and recycle. Do you have any plastic bottles laying around? Reuse them to make word jars. It’s easy!

All you need is uncooked white or brown rice. Food coloring. A plastic container and of course, the words of your choice.

This is a great craft activity for kids. Take the rice. I used brown rice.

Uncooked rice

Put it in a zip-lock bag. Add the food coloring. Make sure it is zipped closed. Give it to your kids to Shake, Shake, Shake. Since Valentine’s Day is coming up I decided on pink and red. Put your rice on a cookie sheet to dry. (I skipped adding the rubbing alcohol or vinegar all to together.)

Colored rice

Then add the dried colored rice into the plastic bottle. I used a funnel. Afterward I swept up the few that got away.

Rice in jar

Choose your words. Add them to the jar. I picked words that represented Valentine’s Day. You can also add Presents Day and Groundhog Day to make it a Month of February word jar. I also laminated my words, this helps them to stand up in the rice. Or you can use card stock. Place the lid on and glue it shut.

Words

Now you have your very own Valentine’s Day Word Finder. I got this idea from Sunny Days in Second Grade. If you like this one, she has synonym and antonym rice shakers, too.

Find words in the bottle

Suggested games you can play with the word jar:

• Who can find all the words the fastest?
• Count how many words you can find
• Once you find a word, practice writing it down.

If you think of any other games or ideas you can do with your word jar share them with us at Sage Tots Childcare.

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