Counting Collection

My 3rd grade daughter's teacher sent home a letter asking for help and donations for "counting collections" for the classroom. This is a technique they use to help the students with basic math skills when they need practice, like counting, sorting, and place value. We started saving lids from 2 liter pop bottles and water bottles, and I wanted to send them to school in style..so I started looking for a cute container that I could re-purpose! I finally found one that was perfect, so here's the before and after!

Before: A plain Planters cashew plastic container.
(The tray is for another project I am working on...that will be posted later.)















I measured all 4 sides, cut some paper to fit, and using double sided tape, I attached it to the container. To better hold the paper in place, I covered it all with a coat of clear Mod Podge. I also wanted to spice it up a bit, so I added a ribbon around the top, and it also covers up the stamped expiration date on the container. I wanted to decorate it further, so I added some felt sticky back numbers that I had left over from another project. I felt the white ones faded in to the paper, so using some Sharpies, I added some dots. 

Here is the finished project!

I threw in the bottle caps we had been saving & sent it to school with her. Now, for the next one I am going to decorate it a bit more, but since I wanted to keep this one simple, I held back and used the "less is more" theory. It is for 3rd graders, ya know!!??