What’s the idea?
Make your own plastic bottle wind spinners and add a touch of colour and movement to your garden, to celebrate Summer Solstice.
What’s the story?
Summer is a great opportunity to get out into the sunshine and enjoy the outdoors!
So why not encourage this by getting your kids to add a touch of colour and movement to the garden?
Using this fun activity they can create their own wind spinners from empty water bottles!
You can hang them from trees, the back porch, or even in an open window, then watch as the breeze makes magic happen.
Plus they are perfect tree decorations for your Summer Solstice celebration!
(By the way, if you love colourful kids’ crafts, you could also try making a suncatcher.)
People should do this because…?
Firstly, it’s a fun and easy craft project for teaching children the importance and value of upcycling.
Instead of throwing away used plastic bottles, they can turn them into something fun!
Secondly, it’s a great chance to learn about how the wind makes things move.
This activity is fun for all ages but is mostly aimed at preschool or primary school children.
Because the youngest ones can let their imagination run wild as they colour the bottles.
While older children can practise their scissor skills to transform their designs into wind spinners.
How do you do it?
- Before you begin, ensure bottles are empty and clean.
- Remove labels and bottle caps from bottles.
- Use the permanent markers (or paint mix) to colour the bottles. There are no rules here, let your imagination go wild!
- Once bottles are coloured, pierce a hole in the top (close to the neck) with the scissors. Adult supervision may be required.
- Cut around the bottle in a downward spiral angle to create one long plastic spiral.
- When your cut is complete, gently stretch out your spiral to create your wind spinner
- Slip the bottle opening onto a tree branch, or tie a string through the opening to hang it up.
- Enjoy watching your spinner dance in the wind!
Stuff you may need
- • Plastic drink bottles
- • Scissors
- • Permanent markers
*You can also substitute the permanent markers with a paint/PVA glue mix (half paint, half glue – the glue helps the paint stick!)
Links to other Stuffer pages
Links to other articles on the web
Links to other videos on the web
Links to apps
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.acewhite.diyplasticbottlecrafts&hl=en_ZA
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/diy-recycled-crafts-ideas/id1142925357
