Fun at Home - Message in a Bottle Make a special Message in a Bottle for Mother’s Day to tell your Mum how much you love her! Time to do and skill level: 15 minutes. Easy, suitable for children 5+ because of small items. Young children may need help cutting alfoil, tying the bow and curling the ribbon. Equipment list You will need: A small clean bottle or jar like a spice jar, relish jar or plastic drink bottle, with a lid. A4 template background for your message – PDF download. Scissors Pens, coloured pencils or textas. Coloured paper Alfoil Coloured ribbon, thread or string. Sticky tape. Blu tack Bamboo skewer Something precious and beautiful to put in the bottom of your bottle – we used sand and tiny shells for a beach theme, cut-up hearts, alfoil and shiny ribbon for a heart theme, and cupcake decorations for a silvery theme. Instructions Step 1 Print out the A4 message template and cut your favourite message along the dotted line. Write a special message to your Mum for Mother’s Day using pens, textas or coloured pencils. Step 2 Roll your message up tightly and secure with sticky tape (make sure the message is on the inside). Check that your message fits inside your bottle, trim it a little bit with scissors if it’s too long. Step 3 Take some ribbon or string and tie it around your message, making a bow on your message, with one long end. Step 4 Add some beautiful decorations to the bottom of your bottle – spoon in sand and drop in shells, or drop in cut-up hearts or cupcake decorations. You can use the bamboo skewer to arrange your decorations nicely. Step 5 Push your message into your bottle with the long end of the ribbon coming out. Again, use the skewer to arrange your bow nicely. Step 6 You can also decorate your lid with alfoil to make it shiny – cut a larger circle of alfoil, then press the edges carefully inside the lid. Step 7 Screw the lid on your bottle. You can attach shells or hearts to the lid with blu tack. Step 8 Tie your ribbon or string around the lip of the bottle. If you have used curling ribbon, you can curl it by running one edge of the scissors under the dull side of the ribbon and pulling it towards you. Ask an adult to help with this. Extension activity You can also print out your favourite picture of your family, or a picture you think your Mum will love, cut it out to the size of your bottle, roll it up, put it inside and let it spring out to fill the bottle. Share pictures of your beautiful bottle with us on Facebook or Instagram and use the hashtag #distantdiscoveries This Fun at Home activity is presented by: