Lids, Caps, Tops... A Free, Recycled Learning Material

It isn't a new, or an original idea to use lids as manipulatives in the classroom.  I read about collecting household items to use in math instruction in Math Their Way, first published in 1976. There are a lot of innovative ways to use these free materials to teach mathematics, as well as art and environmental awareness.  Today I'd like to share some of them with you.

Sorting... we sorted by color here...

 ... and by size and shape here.

 It's fun to make concentric circles, which also happens to involve seriating by size.

 You can build tall towers, which not only involves seriating, but also fine motor skills and balancing.

 You can see several of those things happening as these children play.

 We also used the larger lids to make enclosures at our pretend zoo!

 What about sorting with subgroups?  Skinny yellow lids within a container of skinny lids, within a container of various lids...  I showed the children my sorting rule, and they figured out where to put each lid.

 Another group made a rainbow picture, not only sorting by color, but making a picture with it.

All this was on day one of this material being available!  We'll be exploring further, and hopefully will include some of the other lid ideas I've collected on this pinterest board:

In the meantime, start saving your lids!