Recyling formula cans into fancy and educational fine motor toys!

I have all these empty formula cans in the house that I can't bear to part with, as they're so sturdy and I believe will come in handy for storing knick knacks. So far, they're all empty and taking up space in my storage room, but I did find an immediate use for one of them recently, as well as an empty tin for Poppycock we had received at Christmas time.




First, we began using them for an 'occupy the child while Mommy gets things done' activity that occupies children's attention for as long as your pile of elastics will last! I gave Rachel a pile of elastics, set them beside the two cans, gave her some smaller containers turned upside down, and she stretched the elastics over the cans (this is a great fine motor activity if you want to develop your child's handwriting skills).




Then it dawned on me that the flexible plastic lids could be easily cut to turn them into coin banks (picking up small coins and placing them in a bank is also a great fine motor activity)!



But these coin banks were just too ordinary, so I covered the first one with paper and covered it with (the Despised and Annoying) Dora stickers.



The second, I covered with paper, then layered with many elastics, horizontally and vertically.




I would have picked this idea up from a book or something along the way I think. I'm pretty sure it didn't come from the top of my head. Then I gave Rachel a variety of colors and some glitter, and this is the beautiful piece of artwork that was created!














So, I've now used two of maybe 10 or more cans. Any suggestions on what to do with the rest of them???????