Project of the weekend-- Sensory Bottles

When I worked at the daycare, the kids used to love when we would make them sensory bottles.  There are all different types you can make depending on age and skill level.  A few ideas I plan on using as Kai gets older are a hide and seek bottle where you put certain objects and they have to find them, a letters one where you put the foam letters in oil and they can shake the bottle and identify certain letters, a different sounds bottle set where you put rice, beans, etc in the bottles and put them in a sock and they have to guess what it is by the sound it makes, and nails in a bottle with a bit of water to watch rust form.  As he gets older, I will make more bottles and update you guys.

Right now he is to young for those ideas, but I did make him a waves bottle.  You put half water with food coloring and I put glitter just to make it pretty and half corn or vegetable oil.  When you shake it, it looks like waves.

He has a color mixing bottle.  I put a small amount of shaving cream in the bottom of the bottle with water to fill it and a few drops of food coloring.  You can shake it and watch it turn white and swirl around and then the shaving cream slowly rises to the top.

I made a marbles in water bottle.  This one is mostly just for him to shake and make noise with and watch the marbles roll from one end of the bottle to the other.  I had planned to just do marbles in a bottle, but my gosh it was loud.  The water dulls the noise a little bit.

Finally, I made a bubble bottle.  I put a cup of water in it with a squirt of dish soap and a few drops of food coloring.  He can shake it up and watch the bubbles form and then go away as it settles.

Coming up later this week when I have a chance to go to a crafts store are a bottle with the craft bells in it so he can shake it and make noise and a rain fall bottle.  You put a bunch of toothpicks in a bottle with dry rice and the rice trickles down through the toothpicks and sounds like rain.  I will update this post with those pics once I get them made.  I might also make a mud and water bottle to let him watch the sediment settle to the bottom of the bottle and the water go to the top. 

I also plan on doing a beach theme bottle in October when we go to Destin.  I am going to put sand and seashells in it and let him roll it around and discover the seashells.  Plus it will be a handy souvenir from our trip.  Come fall I plan on a fall leaves bottle as well.

A few final tips:  I would recommend Gatorade bottles.  We used coke bottles and water bottles as well at the daycare and I had more leaks with them if the kids dropped them too often.  I think the Gatorade bottles are just thicker plastic.

I also glued the tops on with Elmers school glue.  I plan to hot glue them at some point when I borrow my mom's hot glue gun.  All we did at the daycare was school glue with no problem.  LOL But since it is my living room, I want to be extra safe.

Let me know what great ideas for sensory bottles you guys come up with.

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