Sensory Bottles!
These DIY Sensory Bottles are super easy and fun to make. Sensory bottles or calm down bottles are a wonderful useful calming tool for toddlers or children with sensory needs, anxiety, or those that need help with self-regulation or transitioning to the next activity. Sensory bottles act as an “calm-down” aid by helping them re-focus their attention on the objects, colors and movement in the Bottle. Some moms use them during their child’s time-out periods. My daughter primarily uses it at bed time to help her settle down for story time and help with the transition of night time.
The options are endless on what objects you want to use to make your calm down bottle. I also experimented with recipes that call for glue, oil, and soap mixed in with the water. The easiest and most successful was either water or water and soap. I use water and soap when adding glitter plus objects to the bottle. Basically I just use water when I only have objects in the bottle. The easiest way is to just experiment and see what you like best. Just wait to glue the top down, until you are sure you like your bottle.
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Ingredients To Make Sensory Bottles:
- Colored objects (Colored Buttons, Plastic colored straws (cut up), colored hair rubber bands, etc.)
- Water bottle – one with a larger lid- any convenience or grocery store (Vos or Core are what I use)
- Super glue-Gorilla Glue
- Dawn Clear Dishwashing Soap or colored soap
- Water
- Glitter
How To Make Sensory Bottles:
Again, if you are not using glitter, I recommend just using water and your objects. Seriously, do not over complicate it.
- Remove the label on the bottle (if you have to use goo gone-usually it just peels off).
- Empty about a quarter of the water since you are not using glitter and just adding objects.
- Put your objects in the bottle (buttons, cut up colored straws hair bands, etc.)
- If you like your bottle glue the lid shut.
How To Make Sensory Bottles With Glitter:
Okay, same idea as just using the water except you are adding glitter. As some of my readers know, my daughter LOVES the color pink….so we did one with pink glitter. When you use glitter you need to have soap mixed in to help disburse and move the glitter around.
- Remove the label on the bottle (if you have to use goo gone-usually it just peels off).
- Empty about a half of the water.
- Put your objects in the bottle (buttons, cut up colored straws hair bands, etc.) and then add your glitter, or if you just want glitter that is fine too. Before you add your soap the glitter will just sit on top of the water.
- Add clear or colored dishwashing soap to the bottle. I don’t really measure. I just squeeze a little at a time and see if I like it. Probably about 2 tablespoons to start.
- It will have soap bubbles. Just wait for it to settle and water until you are happy with your calm down bottle.
- Don’t glue the lid shut right away. Play around with it. You may find you want to change things around. Add more water, more glitter or just dump out and start again.
- For more of the pink color, I used pink soap. For my green glitter calm down bottle, I used clear soap. Dawn seems to have every color out there so play around and discover what you like best!
That’s it! Easy peasy DIY Sensory Calm Down Bottles! I hope you have as much fun as we did making all these different bottles. I hope you add this sensory activity into your toddler’s activities rotation, it is a great one to try! Or another DIY sensory activity is my fluffy slime recipe made with shaving cream. The shaving cream makes the slime fluffy and is a great texture. You can check out my fluffy slime recipe here!
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