Bottle Top Sentences

Since your kinders are likely on the path to letter mastery, common sight word recognition, and vocabulary expansion, you might try throwing a new ball in the air with this fun reading/sentence building exercise from The Activity Mom.

Supplies You'll Need

• Recycled white {or light colored} bottle tops
• Permanent marker
• Paper
• Graphic art tools

Before introducing this guided exercise at the writing center, compile a list of vocabulary and sight words your kindergartners have been working with, scripting these directly onto the bottle caps with the permanent marker. Also, take time to create a variety of "sentence cards" (see example below), to copy and place at the center.

To complete the activity, students will work to match the bottle top vocabulary words to the correct spot on the sentence card {for extra practice} and then "read along" as you go over the sentence with them. With the graphic art tools, invite them to illustrate the sentence card they've just read placing the finished product in their reading folder for continued practice.

Once students are comfortable with basic sentence structure and the vocabulary words, invite them to try creating and illustrating a sentence of their own on a blank sentence card. Not only will this activity help your students build confidence as writers, it can be a permanent writing center activity - all you have to do is periodically update the bottle top words and sentences!