Halloween Discovery Bottle

This is an easy fun DIY activity in preparation of Halloween. To get in the spirit we put this discovery bottle together in just 10 minutes and Dimples enjoyed exploring it all afternoon.

Using an empty Pom juice bottle we added-

• Glucose syrup
• Halloween Sequins
• Eye Ball buttons
• Orange Glitter
• Black and red buttons
• Small plastic spiders
• Star sequins

We played I SPY, and named things starting by letter such as Spider, Star, Bat, button, Pumpkin, Eye, Orange, Black, White, Red, Slime & Glitter.  Dimples enjoyed helping make this one because of its funky shape and the messy time we had getting the glucose syrup in. These are so easy and simple, the best thing is though, anyone can make them out of recycleable materials and things you find laying around in your art/craft supplies, or even every day materials. Just remember to glue the lid shut!

6 months - 18 months:
Discovery bottles are great for developing observation skills, predictability and thinking skills.  For young children they are great for gross motor, grasping, passing from hand to hand, twisting, turning, shaking, they aide in the development of focused concentration. High contrast colours should be used for younger children to develop their sight perception, depth and visual focus. They are great for sight and sound sensory development and when used with more than one child can help in sharing, interacting and swapping.

 

18 Months- 4 years:
With older children they can be more detailed and used as  I Spy bottles to introduce letters, numbers,  themes and some science lessons such as separation, depth, gravity, density, sinking and floating. Again it helps with predictability, cause and effect cognition's, observation skills, focused attention and thinking skills.

They can be used for experiments such as sink or float, separation using water and oil, gravity with non liquid ones or like you seen here the Halloween one explore concepts of density and depth. Themes can be taught also, like the use of this Halloween theme. With non contrast similar colours and softer colours older children need to pay attention to objects presence.
If you want to make it more interesting for younger children, enrol their skills and help. Get them to choose what they want to add in to the bottle, how many and get them to help measure and pour anything in via a large funnel as I did with Dimples. This one is his favourite because he made it.

Happy Adventures :)

Discover the Seasons ~ I Spy Bottles

We haven't done discovery bottles for a while so this was an easy in door activity that we did on a very windy day.  Previous discovery bottles have been made when dimples was younger for him simply to explore and shake around, so this time we did a little more of a grown up activity 'I spy Bottles'.

 

Dimples said 'why is it winter?' this morning, because the weather doesnt know what it is doing, although it is spring it does feel like winter of a morning.
We went around collecting bits and pieces that represents the seasons and discussed what happens over the course of a year as the weather changes, and why it may still feel like winter but it is actually now spring. We then went on a quick flower hunt and noticed all the new blooms and all the nice smells that Spring brings.



 

 

 

Winter: Some white dusty corn flour, snow flake sequins, thinly cut cellophane, some pearl beads, blue glitter and some pearl blue shaped bunny heads. Symbolising cold, snowy weather during winter. The picture does no justice as you cant see the pretty snow sequins, it does look just like snow with snow flakes.

 

 

Spring: we gathered some lavender, added some bright pretty coloured Pom poms, a fake daisy flower, purple, yellow and aqua coloured rice, a knitted daisy flower, some pink glitter and some green plastic petals.

 

Summer: To us Summer means the beach, so this was easy. Sand from the sand pit, some shells, a plastic sea star, and some blue sparkling jewels.

 

Autumn: In our Autumn Discovery bottle we had some gum nuts and fallen leaves in shades of yellow and red, dimples added some golden decorative stones in it and painted a few leaves in yellow and orange.

 

For older children these discovery bottles are great for I spy games. For younger children and babies they are great for shaking, twisting, switching hands and inspecting.

We did lots of I spy games: I spy games based on what is in it, for example I spy with my little eye, something beginning with S- Sand, sea shell, sea star, Summer. We did some based on colours that were in it and some based on the objects in it and we lined them all up in order. Dimples still enjoyed knocking them around and shaking them as musical maracas.

Happy Adventures