32 Recipes for Sensory Bottles

Sensory bottles are a great way to calm down children as they watch the contents of the bottles move, sometimes creating a pleasant sound. They can be made to represent the various natural phenomena like seasons, rains, snow etc. and natural spaces like the ocean, beach and space. Not only kids but adults, too, can get rid of their stress and anxiety by indulging in the sensory play offered by these calm down bottles. Apart from recipes, this article gives you various ideas on things you can put in your sensory bottles and the themes they can sport.

1. Homemade Sensory Bottles

The above-linked tutorial comes replete with a video showing you how to make these awesome sensory bottles. They require no preparation and keep your baby happy.

2. How to Make Your Own Sensory Bottles

The season sensory bottles are a great educative tool for little ones. Let them discover the various seasons as they indulge in sensory play.

3. Preschool Sensory Bottles DIY

The above-linked article gives you the steps of making a themed sensory bottle with glitter, corn syrup and food coloring. That is followed by the instructions to make a sensory wave bottle.

4. Glitter Sensory Bottles DIY

5. Simple Sensory Bottle Ideas

6. Glitter Glue Sensory Water Bottles

7. Galaxy Sensory Bottle DIY

If you love looking up at a starry night, this space sensory bottle would have your back. The major supplies are a plastic bottle, water, baby oil, purple and blue liquid food color and silver glitter.

8. DIY Sensory Bottles with Baby Oil

You can make the bottles learner-friendly by putting the alphabets inside. It would present you with unique opportunities to learn and play.

9. Rainbow Water Bead Sensory Bottle

This lovely rainbow sensory bottle is made with water beads or orbeez. Children would love the vibrant colors. However, you need to be pretty careful with kids around as they should not be allowed to ingest the water beads. The same goes for pets. For the 4th of July, you can have patriotic sensory bottles in a red and white and blue color combination while for Christmas, have them in red, green and white.

10. Making Nature Sensory Bottles for Toddlers

Spring flowers add to the looks of these gorgeous spring sensory bottles. You can also put toy butterflies and bees among the flowers.

11. Ocean Themed Sensory Bottle

Mini ocean animals like starfish, shark and jellyfish go into the making of this ocean or under the sea sensory bottle. You can even put in a toy mermaid and sand if you wish. You can put different colored fish and pebbles inside for an aquarium sensory bottle.

12. Fall Sensory Bottle for Preschool

This easy fall discovery bottle has plastic autumn leaves, leaf-shaped confetti, glitter and sequins in fall colors, all immersed in water contained in a water bottle. As kids play with it, the bubbles add to its looks.

13. DIY Sensory Bottles for Babies, Infants

These pretty sensory bottles can be used as a great calming tool for babies. Empty bottles, glitter, food coloring, clear glue and water are the main ingredients. You can put beads, buttons, stars and floating pom poms inside the bottles. Toy dinosaurs inside would keep the little ones interested.

14. Tutorial for Calming Sensory Bottles

These easy, calm down sensory bottles can be made for preschool kids. Upset children can be found to relax while watching the interaction between the different contents of the bottles.

15. Slow Motion Sensory Bottle Using Hair Gel

The slow moving Lego blocks inside the bottle would endear themselves to kiddos. If you don’t have hair gel, you can use glycerin or Karo syrup. You can also have slow falling beads if you so wish. For a monster sensory bottle, you can fill up an empty bottle with green hand sanitizer and put googly eyes and googly finger puppets inside. For a Christmas tree sensory bottle, swap the googly eyes and puppets with mini Christmas ornaments and stick a star to the top of the bottle.

16. Winter Snow Sensory Bottle

The addition of foil or plastic snowflakes to a mixture of glitter glue and water spells winter charm in true “Frozen” style. After all, who doesn’t love the beauty of a sensory bottle that has the looks of a snow globe?

17. DIY Magnetic Sensory Bottles

18. Sensory Water Bottle for Autistic Children

19. Shaving Cream Sensory Bottle Instructions

This is a catchy calming bottle that is made from shaving cream. Reminiscent of feathery clouds in a blue sky, this one is a fun weather discovery bottle. If you want to give the sound effect of rains, fill up half of a bottle with rainsticks and watch the little ones smile.

20. Dry, Sound Sensory Bottles

Various dry ingredients go into the making of these sensory bottles that produce sound. If you want to calm your senses with both sound and smell, you can make a scented rainstick sensory bottle. Just put rice, food coloring and around 30 drops of lavender essential oil in a ziplock bag and mix nicely. Take out the contents and allow the rice to dry. Then put the rice and cut pieces of straw inside a plastic bottle with its walls perforated with pins.

21. Exotic Sand Sensory Bottle

Even Montessori kids can DIY this easy sensory bottle that is half-filled with sand. Another idea is to add water to kinetic sand in an empty bottle. Mix blue food coloring, put in some seashells and small rocks to turn it into a beach sensory bottle, a great summer craft.

22. Sensory Bottle with Dish Soap

23. Cool Dr. Seuss Sensory Bottle

24. Minion Sensory Bottle for Kids

This Despicable Me sensory bottle uses a VOSS water bottle and yellow loom bands. The liquid inside is a mixture of hair gel and water.

25. Pumpkin Sensory Bottle for Halloween

For the tutorial for this Halloween pumpkin sensory bottle, you need to scroll down the above-linked post. Or just search with the word, sensory.

26. Oil and Water Color Changing Sensory Bottles

These small, layered color mixing sensory bottles are made with baby oil. If you don’t have baby oil, you can use mineral oil or vegetable oil instead. Note that the different colors of the layers have been lent by food coloring. Instead of the colors shown in the image below, you can try black and white food coloring for amazing day and night calm down bottles. The shaker bottles relax your senses as the colors mix with each other. You can use them as time out devices too.

27. Cute Bear Hunt Sensory Bottles

Keep your toddler or preschooler engaged for hours with these sensory bottles that are based on the classic story, We’re Going on a Bear Hunt.

28. Vivid Easter Sensory Bottles

The vibrant Easter grass and craft foam Easter eggs contents speak festivities and togetherness. You can also make emotions sensory bottles in the same lines. Just cut the craft foam in round shapes and use a sharpie for drawing the emojis or emoticons or feelings. For Valentines’s Day, you can cut them in the shape of hearts.

29. Calming Glow in the Dark Sensory Bottle

Encourage sensory play in your child by giving him this lovely glowing sensory bottle for bedtime. The primary materials are coffee filters, plastic or glass bottle, glue, toys, rainbow ribbon and glow in the dark rice.

30. Sensory Bottles with Hand Soap

31. Sensory Melted Snowman Bottle

32. Unique Thanksgiving Sensory Bottle

You can do the activity using Voss bottles for their kid-friendly shape or mini Gatorade or Powerade bottles for their sturdiness. The calming bottles greatly help in babies’ development. The craft, in itself, would help keep your creative juices flowing during the holidays. Once you are done with them, you would agree with us that they are a visual treat!