Sensory Saturday: Earth Day Sensory Bottles

Eek another Sensory Saturday late!! I need to stop partying so hard on Saturday nights (aka battling a silly baby who doesn't want to sleep after a full day of fun and being so exhausted by 8:00 that I cannot fully function enough to write a blog post!)and get my posts up on time! As with all of our posts this week, this one is Earth Day related! As true lovers of all things sensory over here, my mind couldn't stop coming up with fun ideas for Earth Day themed sensory bottles. I have so many bottles drying out on my counter with plans to make sensory bottles. But instead of bombarding everyone with a million Earth Day bottles, I narrowed it down to two bottles: the Dirt and Bug Shake and Find Sensory Bottle and the Babbling Brook Sensory Bottle. Both of which will come into play in our upcoming baby-school units which I want to cover at some point (a unit on Nature and a unit on bugs).

Dirt and Bug Shake and Find Sensory Bottle - 

To recreate this bottle you will need: a dry water bottle, a cup of potting soil, glue, and some plastic insects! If you cannot scrounge up any creepy crawlies around your house, here are some really great ones: Wild Republic Nature Tubes - Insects, Safari Ltd Insects Toob, Insect Lore Big Bunch O' Bugs 15-Pack.

As per usual, creating this sensory bottle only takes a few minutes!! Simply pour the dirt into your bottle (I say simply.. but in reality I spilled the dirt ALL over the kitchen floor while doing this .. be prepared, this activity might get messy!) Then squeeze your bugs into the bottle on top of the dirt. Glue your cap and your in business.

I personally DESPISE bugs. So, I thought that this bottle definitely achieved a realistic effect! Before giving the bottle to Kingston, I shook up the dirt so that a lot of the bugs were buried. When I gave it to him, he did his typical "grab and attack" method where he bites each and every part of the bottle and gives it a couple noisy squishes. Then, he realized there was something really fun inside!

He put the bottle in his lap and started examining what was inside. We talked about the brown color of the dirt. Then I explained to him that the buggies live inside the dirt in the ground. We took turns shaking the bottle and saying "shake, shake, shake". Then I pointed out the bugs inside and named them and their color. Kingston liked looking inside the bottle to see the different bugs. It was a "shake and find" sensory bottle because the dirt covered the insects well enough that K and I had to shake the dirt off each one to find them. It was really fun and he enjoyed it. This bottle was also nice and light in weight, so Kingston was able to handle it easily!

Babbling Brook Sensory Bottle - 

For this sensory bottle you will need: a dry bottle, water, glue, and small stones. I purchased a bag of stones at the Dollar Tree in the flower decor section, but you could look for small rocks outside or purchase a bag of river pebbles (River Rocks Pebbles or Polished River Pebbles)

I put the rocks in the bottle and filled it with water. Keep in mind when making this bottle that the rocks and water add a lot of weight. Add as much of both as you think your child can handle. My little boy likes to make a game of lifting super heavy things. He grunts and laughs like it is the best activity in the world (future bodybuilder?!), so I added a decent amount of rock.

When the bottle is tipped from side to side, it makes the most soothing babbling brook sound, hence its name! I had just as much fun playing with this one as Kingston did!

When I gave him this, he did exactly what I described above - tried to lift it as high as possible! He did this for a good few minutes before he decided to take a peek at what Mama had put inside. When he turned his attention to the pebbles, I talked to him about rocks. I described a brook (I also used the word "stream") and helped him to tip it back and forth. He liked hearing the noise and flapped his hands up and down for me to give the bottle back to him. He bit his lip and concentrated to try to tip it himself! It was fun to watch. Then we rolled the bottle all over the floor watching the rocks change position.

I enjoyed introducing Kingston to these nature concepts and cannot wait to explore them a little further in the weeks to come!

I couldn't help snapping a few pictures of Kingston in his Earth Day inspired peace-sign sweatshirt! He looked so darn cute.

Thanks for reading!!

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