We love Dr. Seuss in The Mad House. I let my kids pick out books before nap every day, and they always pick at least one Dr. Seuss book. Last year, my son was asked to bring snack to preschool on Theodore Geisel’s birthday, so we made a fun Dr. Seuss Snack. Of all the books we own, Fox in Socks is one of my favorites and has been since I was little. The silly tongue-twisters were fun for me to hear as a kid and are fun for me to read as an adult. At the end of the book is the epic tongue-twister about the Tweetle Beetles and their fierce battles in a bottle (on a poodle eating noodles). This is a quick, fun Dr. Seuss activity you can make with your Seuss-loving kids that goes along with this classic book!
To make a Tweetle Beetle Battle Bottle, you will need:
an empty, clean 2 liter bottle
uncooked white rice
cardstock or a funnel
Using a funnel, or cardstock taped into a funnel shape, pour white rice into the two liter bottle until it is half full. I just bought the cheapest bag of white rice at the grocery store.
I got a package of toy creatures at Dollar Tree. For some reason, there was a plastic bat in there, so I chucked that into the toy room. The remaining 6 bugs work perfectly for this game.
Number the toy bugs with a permanent marker and place them in the bottle.
Fill the bottle up to the shoulders (the round part) with rice. It’s important that you leave empty space inside the bottle so you can shake the contents around. Add some strong craft glue or super glue to the inside of the cap and screw the cap back on. You’re done!
The point of the game is to shake the bottle around to find the different bugs hidden in the rice. You can play the game single-player or battle it out against a partner. The game cards have different tasks to complete in a certain amount of time.
For example, in this card, you need to find bugs whose numbers add up to 10 (like 2, 3, and 5) and you have 2 minutes to do so.
I have made up some cards that you can print off and cut up. I have also included some blank cards so you can customize the game for your child! Just open the image above in a new window and save it to your computer.
This is a great quiet game for your little ones to play that will keep those small hands busy! It would also be a fun game to keep in the back of a primary grade classroom for when the students have a little downtime.
Check out these other Seuss activities:
