Things You'll Need:
- Bottle caps
- Craft paint
- Markers or crayons
- Plain paper or boards
-
Step 1
Start with Tic-Tac-Toe. Give each child five bottle caps. Make the two sides discernable from one another by using plastic bottle caps for one child and metal for the other, or grab some markers and decorate them by color. Use some scrap paper to draw a Tic-Tac-Toe board and have some fun.
-
Step 2
Move on to Checkers. Give each child 12 bottle caps to use as pieces. Plastic soda caps work well for this type of bottle cap project, and come in a variety of colors. Choose a separate color for each team. Start with the bottle caps facing upright, and flip them over when needed as Kings.
-
Step 3
Graduate to Marbles. Play by the same rules as traditional marble games, but flip bottle caps rather than shooting marbles. A good flipping technique is to balance the bottle cap on a curved index finger and flipping with a thumb; much the same way as you'd flip a coin. With practice, you can learn to flip bottle caps with great accuracy.
-
Step 4
Accelerate to Chess. Draw a chess board on a piece of paper. (8 squares by 8 squares, with every other square shaded.) For chess pieces, give each player 24 plastic bottle caps. Each player must have his or her own color. Turn over the bottle caps and glue a circle in each one. Write an identifying initial on each circle. (K)ing, (Q)ueen, (B)ishop, (K)night, (R)ook and (P)awn. You can also use specialty bottle caps as pieces. They're harder to find, but can really personalize the game.
