Sensory Bottles

Sensory bottles are brilliant for babies and toddler as they enable them to explore a range of materials that ordinarily may be classed as off limits due to their small size and sharp nature. The bottles and quick and simple to make. A layer of glue inside the top ensures that even the most curious preschooler cannot release the contents of the bottles.

To enable the children to engage their senses I used a range of different eye catching objects from different colours, shapes and sizes to those  that make different sounds. I also used liquids, combining colours with both waters and oils so that the older children observed the separation.

The younger children love the noises that the bottles make with some of them shaking the bottles as hard as they can, smiling at the resulting noise. Others slowly explore the movement of the colours, particularly those involving the liquid that slows the movement down.

After initially planning this activity for the younger children I was pleasantly surprised when the older children invented their own ways to engage. They began lining them up, counting the bottles out, sharing them between the two of them  and stacking them to build a tower.