I love jars!  Yes, jars!

We started a penny jar a few months ago. 

What fun!

We started out with a quart size canning jar and kept throwing in our pennies.  Every time someone comes home with pennies, into the jar they go.  Pennies can always be found under the couch cushions or thrown on the floor in some corner.  The kids have a great time searching for them.

We had to move up to a gallon jar a few weeks ago.  We are almost to the half way mark!

My two year old loves to get the pennies out to play with.  Earlier she made a big pile, then ran and jumped into them.  (I guess she had more fun jumping in those leaves the other day than I realized!)

The other kids like to get out the penny jar to help them to do their math problems.

Sometimes it's fun to take them out and simply count them or just look at them. 

Everyone is guessing how many pennies can fit in a gallon jar.  So, what do you think???

Another fun item to collect in jars is buttons.

The kids love to cut the buttons off from old clothes in order to throw them into the button jar.  They are fun to look at and count too.  They also work great as a math manipulative.

I use glass gallon jars in the kitchen too.

They make great containers for flour, sugar, oatmeal, or anything else you may use a lot of.  I put a pretty cloth top on them with a piece of matching paper that says what it is on the front.

The ideas go on and on.

Like I said, I love jars!