Classroom Water Bottles

28 August 2017 - 9 comments

Here is a cheap classroom hack from the Dollar Store to DIY and hydrate your kiddos all year long.

Are water bottles a problem in your classroom?
They are for me! I NEED my kiddos to be hydrated but the bottles from home can be a struggle. Some are too big, some are too drippy, some are too small and break easily (sounds like the three little bears...no one is ever happy!). So this year I decided I would take control and handle the water bottle situation so #1 everyone had one and #2 everyone had one that was the appropriate size. Easy peasy.

I started the first 3 weeks with the little sized disposable bottles. I just replaced them every week. Well....last week I decided enough was enough. I needed a permanent solution.

Enter Dollar Store...

My fears? They will break, they will spill, they will be hard to handle. I've was reassured from all of the blogs I read that this works so I gave it a go. We won't know until we try! Here are the bottles I purchased and put name tags on.

Aren't they cute? I had to mix up the colors because I couldn't get all of them the same color (bummer). The mix is kind of fun though! Pink and purple for the girls and green and blue for the boys. The nametags are simple clear shipping labels from Avery. Here is my affiliate link to the ones I used. If you purchase from this link I receive a small amount at no additional cost to you.

Did it work you ask?

Yes!

Well...to be honest not exactly as I had planned. The labels were a bust, the printing came off of them right away but I (think) that if you had a laser printer they would be fine.

But other than that they worked like a charm!! I just went ahead and wrote their names on the lids with a Sharpie and we were good to go. I sent them through the cafeteria dish washer once a week and my kiddos stayed hydrated and I didn't have a mess at the drinking fountain, or drippy bottles, or 72 ounce bottles bigger than their heads....you get the idea.

*UPDATE: Did they last all year? YES!!! Well, we had a few casualties along the way. I have all tile in my room so if these were dropped they did in fact break. I had a couple do that right away and man oh man the rest of them were super careful. I bought a few extras and replaced them but once the extras were gone they were out of luck and had to use the drinking fountain. I think I had 4 using the drinking fountain by the last day of school.

Will I do it again? Absolutely! I will look for water bottles during the summer though. Late August it was difficult to find a class set.

What do you do to solve the hydration problem in your classroom or is it not a problem for you? We all have our "things" and this was definitely one of mine! Thanks for stopping by today! Save this post for later if you want to try this too!