Discovery Bottles (and Bags)

Inspired by this post by Cathy at Pre-School Play, we made some "discovery bottles" today. Margaret was able to help make these, and she and James both spent most of the morning playing with them.

We made 3 bottles focused on the effect movement has on different liquids.

1 - water, food coloring, and clear dish soap
2 - water, glitter, and foil strands (the kind used in gift bags and baskets)
3 - water, food coloring, and oil

We also made 3 "search and find" bottles.

1 - colored sand and small toys (plastic fish from a discarded magnetic fishing game)
2 - foil strands and small toys
3 - colored rice and small toys

I made 2 more of the liquid movement bottles, but they didn't turn out well. One was made with hair gel, food coloring, and marbles. The other was shampoo and marbles. I guess the gel and shampoo I used were too thick, because you couldn't even see the marbles, and they didn't move freely through the liquid. Rather than throwing them out, I transferred the contents to plastic zip-top bags (I reinforced the edges of the bags with clear packing tape). This turned out to be a happy accident, because the bags provide a fun sensory experience lost in the bottles. Love when that happens.

The gel and shampoo weren't the only issues I ran into making these bottles. I dyed the oil/water mixture too dark, making it difficult to see the effect, the coloring I used on the sand didn't take, the glitter clumped, and the plastic toys I originally picked up from the dollar store were too big to fit in the mouths of my bottles. Frustrating, but we got it all worked out in the end!

Ah, and I almost forgot to note, I sealed the tops of the bottles and bags with packing tape.