My preschoolers love all kinds of sensory play! We have used sensory bottles throughout the year, and up until now I think that my favorite would have been our 5 Little Pumpkins sensory bottle. We must have recited that poem 18 bazillion times, and it never got old! But now, between the super colorful hearts, and the surprises inside, I think I can predict that our new I Spy Love sensory bottle may just win the award for most played with sensory bottle in my classroom!
And this I Spy Love Sensory Bottle take just minutes to put together, so you have to make your own version for your home or classroom setting!
It’s the perfect addition to circle time, a reading corner, or even to the car while waiting in carline!
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I Spy Someone I Love!
Putting together this sensory bottle is so simple!
- VOSS bottle
- heart beads
- photos of people you love!
We love using the 16.9 ounce VOSS water bottles for sensory bottles. Definitely use the plastic ones, not the glass bottles since they are safer for little hands when dropped or hit against something.
Empty the water bottles out, take the label off, and dry it out. If there is any sticky stuff left on the bottle from the label, I use a cotton ball and just a little rubbing alcohol to rub on it. It comes right off!
Collect all of the photos that you want to add to the bottle. I cut small round shapes of the heads in the photos and included each member of our family. Make sure that the photos can fit into the top of the VOSS water bottle
I added heart shaped pony beads to the bottle only about halfway.
At this point, I began adding photos. I added a couple and used a chopstick to push them down and hide them in the beads. I added more beads, and then more photos. I did this until the photos were all included and the bottle was filled with beads a little more than 3/4 of the way.
If you are worried about small children opening the bottle, the beads are a choking hazard, so consider hot glueing or super glueing the top on!
The best part of this I Spy Love Sensory Bottle is the excitement shown each time a photo was seen! My preschool had NO IDEA that there were photos of our family members inside, and after finding herself and her brother, could not stop twisting and turning the sensory bottle to see who else was in there!
My idea for my classroom is to ask my preschoolers’ parents to send in a photo of their child that they won’t need back because I will be cutting it up. One of my classes has 12 children and the other has 13, so I may need to fill 4 bottles with heart shaped beads and split my classes in half so all children can be seen!
Other Ways to Play!
If you need a way to fill this I Spy sensory bottle with something other than photos of loved ones, try these other ideas!
Hide photos of the favorite areas of the classroom that the children love to play in.
Use photos that include favorite toys, or learning activities.
Add small items that are all your child’s favorite color.
Include photos (or print them from online) of all the animals that your child loves.
Or add the names of everyone that your child loves (or all the names in your classroom!) on cardstock to the bottle. Finding names instead of photos adds a fun extra learning experience to the sensory activity!
If you LOVE sensory play as much as we do, check out the all of the ideas in the Discovery Bottles Blog Hop Series and the awesome Valentine’s Day ideas from the bloggers below!
Color Mixing Sensory Bottle | Preschool Inspirations
“Full of Love” Calm Down Jar with Printable Calming Affirmations | Lemon Lime Adventures
Alphabet Discovery Bottle: Valentine’s Day Activity for Kids| Sunny Day Family
Floating Hearts Sensory Bottle | Teaching Mama
Water bead Hearts Discovery Bottle | Sugar Aunts
Slow Falling Hearts Sensory Bottle | Rhythms of Play
Heart Glitter Jar | Fun-A-Day
What a fun idea, and so sweet for Valentine's Day! We'll definitely be making one.
This is the sweetest!! I love the little pictures peeking through!
What a fun discovery bottle! I love the idea of adding pictures to it… fun!