We are instructed in Scripture to count 50 days from the Shabbat during Feast of Unleavened Bread to the next feast day, which is Shavuot! Shavuot is also called the Feast of Weeks, which makes perfect sense, since we count 7 full weeks, and celebrate on the following day.
This can be a fun, engaging activity for your children and help build excitement for one of YHVH’s special days. We have used stickers, calendars, and little signs for counting. This year, I got the idea for using bottle caps off Pinterest. ( It also helped that I save all our bottle caps to use for math manipulatives.)
For this project you will need:
50 metal bottle caps
colored paper (I used 3 sheets of patterned scrapbook paper in red to match my kitchen.)
white liquid glue
gorilla glue
50 disc magnets
Mod-podge dimensional magic (2 bottles)
Number stickers, or a marker for writing the numbers 1-50
1″ hole punch
Here’s what to do
Begin by cutting 50 1″ circles out of your paper with the circle punch. Use either your number stickers, or a marker to label the circles 1-50.
Glue one circle in each bottle cap with the white glue, and let dry. This is an important step. I was in a hurry and didn’t let them dry long enough. As a result, the paper floated up a bit in the mod-podge step, giving it less than a professional finish.
You can glue the magnets on at any time. I used gorilla glue because I didn’t want the magnet pull to be stronger than the glue hold. If you choose to use gorilla glue, a little goes a long way. Again, give it time to dry.
Once your white glue and gorilla glue is dry, arrange all your magnets on a cookie sheet. The mod-podge dimensional magic comes in a bottle with a narrow point at the top. Squeeze the liquid into each magnet, aiming to fill the magnet about 1/3 full. It will shrink down a bit, so keep that in mind. Once you have filled all the magnets, put the whole cookie sheet in a safe place to dry. It takes about 24 hours.
When your magnets are ready, use them to count the Omer by putting one new magnet on your fridge each day. You may also want to decorate your fridge with printables or verses written on small cards. Enjoy!
Here are some printables you may wish to display on your fridge.
