Today I am sharing with you our collection of Homemade Sensory Bottles, along with lots more ideas on what to add to them.
Sensory bottles are bottles that you can either buy or recycle that you fill with different materials, to be explored.
Some materials present chocking hazards, or they may be unsuitable for some children to explore hands on, however they can still be viewed safely under supervision via Sensory Bottles.
Sensory Bottles mainly stimulate the sight and hearing senses.
They do also stimulate touch as there are ridges, lumps and bumps to explore on the bottles and also when the materials move, like the water beads for example, you can feel the sensation in the bottle as you hold it.
I didn't know how many I was going to make initially so this collection has built up over the last few months by using our recycled bottles. I quite like that there is a variation in shape, size and weight.
If like me you decide to save your bottles - make sure they are washed out well and allow them time to fully dry out, this can take a few days. Once they are ready creatively think of as many different textured, colourful items as you can to fill them.
Consider following categories and see what items you can come up with -
*Heavy - water oil, bricks,
*Light - feathers, tinsel,
*Colors - glitter, coloured water
*See-Through - water beads, sweet wrappers
*Opaque - cotton wool, seeds,
*Textured - pasta, rice
*Nature - sticks, leaves, petals, pine cones, conkers
If your little ones are old enough they will really enjoy helping you make these!
At the moment we have the following Sensory Bottles:
- water beads - yellow, blue and red
- conkers
- cotton wool
- pumpkin seeds
- mini coloured bells
- sweet wrappers
- sticks
- pasta
- glitter
- tinsel
- lentils
- coloured rice
- coloured water with cooking oil
- water and washing up liquid
- plastic beads
I introduced these to Little N when she was around 5 months old. She spent hours and hours rolling from one to the other then closely examining them. 12 months on they are still very popular in our house and the collection keeps on growing.
I must add that it is paramount like all my activities I share that this is done under adult supervision at all times.
Learning:
- Concentration
- Developing Language
- Sensory Stimulation
- De-stressing
- Organising
- Sorting into categories
- Labelling
-Learning Colours
- Counting Objects
- Creative
Extending:
We keep adding to our collection we keeps this activity exciting.
As Little N continues to get older some of the materials have been explored safely under supervision using Sensory Boxes.
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Great idea! What glue do you use for the lids? I have a 5 month old that I can't wait to make these for. Amy.
ReplyDeleteHey Amy - Glad you have enjoyed looking at this post. I don't use glue. Instead I ensure lids are very tightly fastened and I inspect them each time my little one goes to play with them to make sure they remain that way. I personally feel this is much safer than using glue especially with young children who end up putting everything in their mouths. I have used glue in the past but I found the glue didn't stick well at all as it didn't seem to bond the two plastics together and also I was constantly having to intervene every time Little N put them to her mouth due to the toxins in the glue. Now none of the sensory bottles we have are glued and although I always supervise its nice being able to let Little N get on with her exploring freely. I hope that helps :) x
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