Letter Learning with Bottle Caps

In this older blog post, we shared how to make your own bottle cap letters for multisensory learning and fine motor play. Creating DIY instructional materials can be both educational and fun. One creative idea is to make bottle cap alphabet letters.

Bottle Cap Letters

By collecting various bottle caps and adding individual letters to them, you can create a unique set of bottle cap letters. This homemade alphabet set can be used for matching big and small letters, helping children learn the alphabet in an engaging way. Kids can enjoy the tactile experience of sorting and matching the big and small bottle cap letters, making it a hands-on learning activity that enhances their letter recognition skills!

How to make bottle cap letters

You’ll need just a few materials:

• 26 bottle caps (one for each letter of the alphabet)
• Label paper
• Marker
• Cardboard for a play mat

1. I used a sheet of label paper to make the lower case letters.
2. Trace a bunch of circles in the correct size.
3. Cut out the circles.
4. Write the letters.
5. Stick them to the bottle caps.  Easy!

How to use alphabet bottle caps

• We’ve also played with the bottle caps in play dough,
• Use them to spell names and words.
• Move the bottle cap alphabet to label objects with it’s starting letter.
• Work on learning which direction the “p”, “b”, and “d” should go. This is a great hands-on activity to target letter reversals!
• They are so great to manipulate and play with in a sensory bin filled with corn, too.
• Or, pair the letter bottle caps with our alphabet exercises to target fine motor and gross motor skills. 

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Colleen Beck, OTR/L has been an occupational therapist since 2000, working in school-based, hand therapy, outpatient peds, EI, and SNF. Colleen created The OT Toolbox to inspire therapists, teachers, and parents with easy and fun tools to help children thrive. Read her story about going from an OT making $3/hour (after paying for kids’ childcare) to a full-time OT resource creator for millions of readers. Want to collaborate? Send an email to contact@theottoolbox.com.