The Many Layers of Me: Sensory Bottles

I'm pretty sure I've been talking about making these for months. In fact, I was actually collecting bottles before we even moved here... in September. Yeah. That's sad. I almost decided to just forget the idea. I wasn't sure if Olivia was going to be too old for them. But since I wasn't spending any money making them and very little time, I figured it would be worth a shot.

For those of you who may not know, a sensory bottle is just a bottle filled with any old thing you can find. Then the child uses their senses to explore the contents of the bottle. Mostly the child will be using the visual and auditory sense. It also peeks a child's curiosity and can encourage problem solving. (Sometimes these are also called Discovery or I Spy bottles.)

I went down to the garage during nap one day last week. I spent about 10 minutes rummaging through my teaching boxes. I came upstairs and got to work. I know some people go all out and get the fancy bottles with the silver lids. I wasn't taking this too seriously. I had saved a few heavy duty bottles and the rest were just water bottles. All the bottles were made with things I had on hand with the exception of one bottle. I paid $1.09 for a vitamin water so that I could have a wide mouth bottle to fit some of the transportation pieces in. Other than that, this activity was FREE! :)

Once again, Olivia couldn't wait for me to give her the activity.

She picked up the one with the foam letters first (go figure!). She immediately started telling me what letters she saw. I didn't even have to prompt her!

Next she went for the pink bottle. The water changed color from something I put in it (pom poms or pipe cleaners?) I had originally planned on putting coloring in some of them, but then just went with what I had.

Glitter and sequins! She kept saying "pretty circles!"

Watching the marbles go from one end to the other

Shake, shake, shake!

Making bubbles. I think she impressed herself!

She kept calling it bubble bath.

I actually made this one for our Thanksgiving road trip. You can't tell by this picture, but it it has little animal figures in it. She said, "I see a pig!" It's an I Spy type of activity.

"I see a car. Do you see a car?"

This one had cut up pipe cleaners in it. She is trying to move the pipe cleaners with the magnet, but our magnet isn't strong enough. I'm going to have to get one of those educational magnet kits.

She loved these little beads. She kept calling them strawberries?!

I think this was her favorite bottle because it made the most noise. :)

After shaking this one we talked about if the sounds from the two bottles were the same or different.

I think she liked the activity!

We did this right before it was time for me to make dinner. All the caps are hot glued on, so I wasn't worried about a mess. I left her to play and went to the kitchen to start cooking. A few minutes later this is what I saw at the kitchen entry.