Discovery bottles

Discovery bottles encourage the development of
observation skills, predictability, scientific
concepts, attention span, cause & effect, colours, sizes, and thinking skills. 

This is one of the funkiest ideas I have came across yet so we adapted them into our own play room, but I will only bring them out on special occasions.

Discovery Bottles:
*Empty bottles, plastic jars or containers.
*time
*food colouring
*bits & pieces;  Mmarbles, glitter, glycerin, shampoo, gel, water, sand, paper clips, oil, straws, shells, pipe cleaners, paper, craft pieces & what ever you find laying around that can fit in a bottle.
*glue gun & glue

Normally I let my little one in on the making of, however i thought this would be a pleasant surprise & it could be another chaotic mess if I let him join in with the mixing & the making.  So I did this one solo but it was worth it, they intrigue him & they will last...
Some times the best toys are home made ones!

I tried to vary the sizes, colours and textures. These were the first lot I did. The 2 most successful were the one at the front, oil-Jewels, straw glitter & water. The water & the oil stay separate which means the glitter most of the time sits mid way, the jewels sink but i think its an awesome concept. If i were to re-do this one i would colour the water purple or aqua so there is more contrast to the oil colour.

There is a bear in there.... with some army plants & some ripped paper. This one required a lot of twisting & turning to get the bear (or the hidden spider) to the top. it is quite tricky, i think i put a little too much paper in & the bear ends up smothered but with careful rotation, small shakes, moving & twisting in different directions he pops his head out.

My other favourite that amazes my boy, who doesn't understand magnetics yet The Multi coloured pipe cleaners & paper clips that have metal inside with the magnetic cleaner off the outside of the fish tank (that's the only magnet thing strong enough that i had handy)  It is really effective & they stick to then follow the magnet right to the top.  We practiced UP, DOWN, AROUND with the motions & of coures he liked to shake the crap out of it so it jingles & jangles then looks all messed up.
Notice to in this one I just used an old baby bottle so it is different shape, thinner than the other bottles.

Learning colours.  The red one is just marbles in shampoo with red food colour.  We have another green one with marbles in dish washing liquid & water to compare how the marbles sink & move around. the Marbles in the shampoo take longer to drop to the bottom when you turn it around then they green one does.
We have red, yellow, green, & a blue vibrant bottles to compare & learn colours with.

This one is another tricky fiddly one, a car in rice. My boy isn't too impressed, it was an older car with a missing window & a missing wheel but he tells me he needs it & wants me to get it out but then he spends so much time trying to turn it around & get all the rice out of the car.  He also told me it crashed off a bridge into the rice & broke its window :)  I love his imagination already!

The Pretty one, as my 2 yr old says....  This one was a 'what was laying about' creation. There are little beads, old cheap jewellery bits that were mismatched pairs, craft butterfly's and a cocktail umbrella. I also threw in some polymer water retaining beads (see my post on that sensory box).

Our favourites are the yellow one at the top of the page with yellow craft bunny heads & this glycerin/glitter one.  Seth particularly likes the car in rice & the rainbow magnetic peices.

Future directions.
I want to do an ocean themed one with some shells & a fish of sort sort hooked in at the lid so it hangs half way down.  I have seen some pretty cool ones for older kids with letters & words typed, cut then put inside. Another good idea is a sink & float theme. The one i did with dishwasher liquid i would next time do with not as much liquid so there is more room for the bubbles to grow as it gets shaken.
& I haven't found the right bottle yet but i want to do some smelly ones with holes in the top, scented fake flowers or something along those lines.

Happy discovering