Sensory bottles are one of me favorites to keep a toddler or even babies engaged. And they are alternatively called as calm-down bottles for a good reason. They mellow down your toddler when he is hyper. This makes them a great way to use them as a teaching tool. They are generally super simple to make and there is no setup and clean up time, which is always a plus! I list the materials I used for making these bottles below :
- A set of leak proof bottles. I specially bought some from Amazon . You can always re-use some plastic bottles you have at home. Make sure you tape the cap firmly so your baby /toddler will not be able to spill the contents.
- Glitter like the ones here.
- Water beads
- Glitter pompoms that I got from Amazon as well.
- Baby oil
ANGER
For the anger bottle, I filled it with 3/4th warm water and poured some red glitter into it.
Fill the rest with baby oil. Do not fill the bottle completely, so as to get the full effect.
When the bottle is stationary, you will see separate layers. And while you shake the bottle you can see bubbles going up and down the bottle.
It sort of brings the effect of anger bubbling up within the bottle add you shake it.
As your toddler plays with it, show how you look when you are angry. J wanted to copy the expression as he shaked the bottle, it was so much fun.
SADNESS
Our sadness bottle was pretty simple.
I filled the bottle with water and added some blue food color to it.
I already had the water beads set out for another activity, so I removed some blue beads and added them to the bottle.
While you shake the bottle it looks like the tears are rolling.
SURPRISE
Fill the bottle with water and add some green food coloring.
I added some green glitter to it because it’s just fun! Now add some green glitter pompoms on top.
The pompoms don’t sink, so it all flats on top. It gives you the illusion that the bottle is ‘mind-boggling’ surprised over something.
This is J’s favorite expression of all times and he says ” Oh wow! Look at that!!” whenever we ask him to make a surprise face.
JOY
This bottle has the easiest setup of all. Full the bottle with water and add yellow food coloring to it.
Now pour as much golden glitter as you like to make the bottle look cheerful. This is such a fun bottle and really did make you happy when you shake it.
I have a collage of all the expressions that J made at the end of the day. Clockwise from top left -Surprise, Happiness(Joy), Anger and Sadness (crying). I gaurantee that his actual crying face isn’t as cute as this. These bottles were a great way for him to try out these expressions and made it fun for him.
