sensory bottles Archives

Children love to explore sensory bottles. They can spin, shake and stare at the objects that they contain. I have come with 5 Ways kids can use sensory bottles to explore a variety of learning concepts and skills.

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Supplies for the Sensory Bottles

I started with La Looks Gel blue hair gel (I found it at Walmart for a really cheap price.), a VOSS Artesian water bottle, green and blue glass gems, and Safari Ltd Coral Reef TOOB Set. Then I dug a chopstick out of my junk drawer.

Constructing the Sensory Bottles

You will need to fill the bottle about 1/3 of the way up with gel . Then add a few gems and the coral figure. You can push them into place with the chopstick. You may want some gems on the side of the bottom and some in the center.

Next, you add more gel so that the bottle is filled up 2/3 of the way. You will add more of the coral reef objects and some more gems. You will push them into place with a chopstick just as you did the first layer of objects.

Finally, you will finish filling up the bottle. You will also place the final coral reef objects and gems into the bottle.

Ways to Explore Sensory Bottles

I Spy

Children will be invited share what objects they see in the sensory bottle. If you want to take pictures of each of the objects and place them on a chart or make a written list, you certainly can. Children could then look for all the objects on your list or chart.

Tell Me a Story

You can invite your children to tell you a story about the objects in the bottle. They could tell the story from the perspective of the diver or one of the animals in the jar if they like. The fun thing about this activity is that the story will be different each time it is shared by your children.

Up Close

It can be hard to see the objects in the center of the bottle unless the bottle is held up close. This activity with sensory bottles invites children to see what can’t be seen on the surface. You could give your children magnifying glasses to use for this activity.

Number Count

Children can be invited to count the number of gems and coral reef objects they see. You could invite them to count only the objects at the top, center or bottom of the bottle. It would make it easier for young children to focus on the objects.

Math Concepts

Children can be invited to add the number of creatures to the number of other coral reef objects. They could also subtract the number of blue gems from the number of green gems. (I added more green gems they blue.) You could also have them skip count them!

More Sensory Bottle Activities

Exploring Shapes

Making Waves

LEGO Man Sink and Float

States of Matter Sensory Bottle Construction

We started by talking about how easily each state of matter can move around. We decide that gases can move very easily. The gas bottle would need just a few a few jingle bells dropped into it. When the bottle was shaken those few bells could easily move around in the bottle.

It was decided that the liquid bottle need more bells than the gas bottle, but not as many as the solid bottle was going to. When that bottle was shaken, we could see the bells move. They didn’t move as easily around the bottle as the gas bottle’s bells could.

The bottle of bell representing a solid was filled with all the remaining jingle bells. We even transferred some of the bells from the liquid bottle to the solid. The bells in the solid bottle barely moved when the bottle was shaken.

STEM States of Matter Sensory Bottles- Children can see, hear, and move the jingle bell molecules while exploring matter.

We then talked about why a solid keeps its shape and a gas doesn’t. It was easy to see that the gas molecules moved easily around the container. There weren’t a lot of other molecules around them to help them keep their form.

The liquid bells has other bells that prevented them from moving freely. They could move, but not everywhere they tried to go.

The bells in the solid had very little movement. They were able to move slightly.

I think it was helpful to visual matter with our bell bottles. It probably also tapped into my son’s auditory and tactile learning. I bet it will do the same thing for your children.

STEM States of Matter Sensory Bottles Facebook

You will find more science experiments like this simple pendulum experiment on my Early Learning Science board on Pinterest. Please take moment to check them out.