Sensory bottles are a fun project you can do with your kids. I got this idea at a class about toddler tantrums. Watching these bottles are supposed to help calm down children when they feel frustrated. My kids loved this project.
First I went to Cub Foods and bought some water bottles. But I made the mistake of buying bottles with labels. When I removed the labels it left a sticky residue that wouldn’t come off even with rubbing alcohol.
I did find this bottle in our refrigerator that had an easy remove label. However, after sorting all the water beads and adding clear soap my daughter dumped it out before I had a chance to glue it shut.
The next day I went to the gas station to look for more bottles. But the only thing I could find with an easy remove label was glass bottles. I bought two Argo Tea bottles. The glass is heavy duty and it has a nice lid. But I then realized that giving glass bottles to my daughter, during a tantrum, is a bad idea. So I gave these to my older son.
My husband suggested I buy a 12-pack of sensory bottles off of Amazon. I didn’t really want to spend $17 dollars but I figured the extras might come in handle in our craft area. You can buy them at the link below or go with a cheaper option and search endlessly for non-sticky plastic bottles haha.
We made five different bottles. The first was a rainbow bottle using water beads I bought off of amazon. These are great and inexpensive. We used them for other crafts and play. It’s amazing how a couple of tablespoons of dried beads turn into a huge bowl after you add water. Sorting them is tedious but my son enjoyed it. Once the bottle is filled to the top with beads we added clear liquid soap. It gives the bottle a blended rainbow effect. I used super glue to seal the lid. I have tried hot glue but for whatever reason liquid leaks with hot glue. https://www.amazon.com/s?k=sensory+beads
My daughter wanted to do a Valentine-themed bottle. I bought these pink hearts and beads from The Dollar Tree. I also added some white glitter. Then we added clear liquid soap to the top and sealed it. After a few days, the clear soap turned bright pink, it really looks cool.
Next we made an oil and water bottler. We added filtered water and dyed it with food coloring. Then we added baby oil because it’s clear and added pink glitter to it. You can also dye oil with an oil-based food coloring but we didn’t have any.
I tried a bottle with just water. I dyed it purple and red but it was too dark so I watered it down. If you dye the water too dark you can’t see anything inside. I then added red glitter, sequences, and white glitter flakes, also from the Dollar Tree.
My son ended the craft by making a galaxy bottle. He used water with purple f.ood coloring then added dark green glitter and rubber dragons we bought at Michaels. You can’t see the dragons because the water got too dark. He then hot glued some fun ribbon to the green lids.
