At our mom and toddler Sensory Discovery program, we made sensory bottles! The moms were given ingredients to choose from, and the kids had a free for all. Using different items of various colours, textures, amounts, and filling with or without water or oil, we were able to experience the senses of sound, sight, and touch!
Parents have even used these visually stunning tools as a timer for 'Time Outs' etc… once all the glitter have settled to the bottom, they may carry on, hopefully calmed down a notch or two!
Feel free to check out (and try at home) the following sensory bottles we made with our kidlets! No special direction, just grab your ingredients, and empty bottle and dump them in. Then shake, shake, shake and see what effect it makes. Or, make up your own and bring them along to share at our next SD program!
**Please remember those little white lids could be a choking hazard,
so consider using a hot glue gun to secure them in place**
1. Glitter and Water Bottle
Ingredients: Water, Glitter (silver), star confetti
Effect: With the ingredients settled on the bottom, it became a storm of silver glitter and stars that swirled around when our toddlers played with it.
2. Fun With Bubbles
Ingredients: Water, Dish Soap, Food Colouring (Yellow and Red)
Ingredients: Water, Dish Soap, Food Colouring (Yellow and Red)
Effect: When the toddlers shook, a simple bottle of orange liquid, became full of bubbles which settled, and remained on the top for a long time!
3. Colourful Glue Bottle
Ingredients: White Elmer's Glue, Food Colouring (red)
Ingredients: White Elmer's Glue, Food Colouring (red)
Effect: The bright thick liquid slowly flows around the bottle when turned, and then slowly settles at the bottom once again. Compared to the other bottles, little happened when the toddlers shook!
4. Magnet Bottle
Ingredients: Pipe cleaners cut up into small pieces (white), large magnet
Effect: To begin, the ingredients were dropped into the bottle. As the bottle was shaken, the pieces quickly stuck to the magnet till it became a ball of pipe cleaners. It looked like a snowball rolling back and forth!
5. Colourful Glitter and Oil Bottle
Ingredients: Water, Food Colouring (yellow), Olive Oil, Glitter (gold)
Effect: When shaken, the bottle was a dark yellow with glitter swirling around. Then slowly the bottle separated into two different colours of yellow (with the glitter remaining in the oil only).
6. Water and Oil Bottle
Ingredients: Water, Food Colouring (Blue), Baby Oil, Glitter (Silver)
Effect: Before the toddlers shook the bottle, it was separated into blue (with glitter) on the bottom, and clear on top. When put on it's side and rocked, it resembled waves flowing in the ocean, when shook, it mixed together and then once again separating leaving a layer of blue oil on the empty portion of the bottle.
7. Crafty Bottle
Ingredients: Brightly coloured cut pipe cleaners, confetti, buttons. Also water and curled coil.
Effect: When shaken, the pieces moved in different ways, and at different paces (depending on whether or not there was water in the bottle or any obstacles in the way). Also neat was to see if and/or how the ingredients reacted when a magnet was run along the side of the bottle.
8. Oil Bottle
Ingredients: Oil (I used Olive Oil, though Baby Oil would have worked better), water, Food colouring;
Note: Colour the oil and water in each bottle a different primary colour!
Effect: When settled, each bottle has 2 primary colours (yellow, red, blue), when shaken, they mix together to make a secondary colour (orange, green, purple)!
9. Pasta Shaker:
Ingredients: Pasta Noodles, Rice, Food Colouring (or whichever)
Ingredients: Pasta Noodles, Rice, Food Colouring (or whichever)
Effect: These were excellent noise makers, with different colours, textures and amounts.
910. A Kiss in a Bottle
At the end of the program, our son noticed there was one empty bottle left.
So we blew in a kiss, put the lid on quickly, then opened the bottle back up when Daddy came home and needed a kiss!
Evidently the possibilities are endless!
