Soda Bottle Water Pots

In today's story, the water bearer had two water pots on a stick he carried on his back. Let's grab some stuff from the recycling bin and make something similar! These are a lot smaller than the kind of pots the water bearer used, and they're made of plastic rather than clay, but it's the same idea!

-two empty soda or water bottles, any size, rinsed

-a piece of corrugated cardboard

-yarn or thick string

-scissors or an X-acto blade

-a hole punch or a sharp knife

-markers, if you'd like to decorate your "pole"

It's easiest to use an X-acto blade to do this (with an adult's help!). If you don't have an X-acto blade, you can have an adult make a small slit in the bottle with a sharp knife, and then use scissors to cut the rest of the way around.

Use your scissors to neaten up the top edges of the pots if they are uneven.

A hole punch will be the easiest way to do this, but if you don't have one, you can get an adult or older sibling to carefully puncture the side with a sharp knife and twist it in a circle to make a hole. Make two holes directly across from one another.

Cut two pieces of yarn of the same length, 8-ish inches long. It doesn't have to be exact. Tie each end of each piece to the holes in your "pots" to make handles for each.

Cut a strip of corrugated cardboard, 2-ish inches wide. Mine is probably about 18 inches long, and you don't want to make it too long, or it will have less structural integrity.

If you want to decorate your pole, you can do that now!

Use a hole punch if you have one. Otherwise, get an adult or older sibling to puncture the cardboard with a sharp knife and twist in a circle to make a hole.

Cut two pieces of yarn of the same length. Mine were about 2 feet long. Tie one end of each string to the holes in the end of your "pole."

Tie the loose ends of each string to the center of the handle on each "pot."

When you put water in them, the cardboard will probably bend. That's okay! You can still carry them around. If you'd like to have a longer "pole," you could go outside and find a straight stick! It was raining today, though, and all the sticks were wet, so I decided to use cardboard.

How much water can you carry in your pots without spilling it? Can you carry other things in your pots? If you poke a small hole in the bottom of one of your pots, like the broken pot in the story, what happens?

Note: Your parents would probably appreciate it if you carried water in your pots as an outside activity. If you poke a hole in the bottom of one of your pots, they will definitely prefer this to be an outside activity.

Have fun!