Sensory Bottles

One of my very favorite things to do both as a teacher and now as a mom has been to use things around my house to create fun sensory experiences for the kids. The Bug does not disappoint- he is a sensory LOVER!

In an attempt to get the Bug's friends involved, we hosted a sensory party where moms all brought stuff from around their houses and we created toys for our munchkins. I already had a set of sensory bottles for the Bug but they got a reboot and became Rainbow Sensory Bottles!

The Bug dressed as Superman for our party. There were 6 kiddos ranging from 6 months to 20 months. It got a little crazy!

I, of course, don't have any good before pictures so instead you get an overview. Start with empty bottles- these are all the smaller bottles of water/soda since the Bug is still small enough that a 20 ounce soda bottle is pretty heavy. Each of them has a "base" ingredient- oats, beans, popcorn kernels, water, and rice are what I used and they work well. They all make slightly different sounds- pony beads also work well!

The stuff the other moms brought was a fantastic addition to the insane amount of stuff I always have around. We took turns creating sensory bottles (and ziplock bags- another day!) for the kids and playing with the crazy ones! I had tried to set up a few activities and of course had snacks and coffee.

So I went with the rainbow theme and reused the bottles I had started. I went through the things we had collected and pulled out things in each color- feathers, pom poms, ribbons, paper straws, pipe cleaners, glitter/sequins, foam stickers, foam letters, and so much more! Once I was done, I secured the lids with hot glue so that the Bug can't accidentally unscrew the lids!

There is an extra bottle on the left that is multiple colors! But this is how they looked after the party. Then I got to thinking about how the Bug can't experience any of the things inside the sensory bottles and the gears started turning... One of the other moms had glued a googly eye to the lid of her son's bottle- so I added textures for the Bug to feel on the outside as well! This was a first for me- it's definitely good to get together with other moms! We got so many other ideas!!!

Red has a foam A, Orange has felt, Yellow has ribbons, Green has googly eyes, Blue has paper straws, Purple has velcro! The Bug seems to really like the ribbons!