Dry Sensory Bottles For Toddlers

Do you want to make a quick and easy sensory bottle for your young toddler (that’s also good for older kids)? That’s what I wanted and I’m sharing my results. After I made the bottle, it took a while to get the little one interested. Eventually, I began rolling the bottle back and forth on the table and he was attracted to the sound. He then rolled it around and shook it for quite a while.

Next, he used the magnet as well to move the paper clips around, although I don’t think he exactly understands the cause and effect just yet. My four year old however, understood and really got into it. He was very fascinated by the magnets and didn’t want to put them down.

Creating the sensory bottle

Materials for sensory bottle:

• Clear bottle with lid
• Color rice
• Paper clips or other interesting items
• Optional: Large child safe magnet

Color rice materials:

• 4 Small resealable plastic bags
• ⅓ cup Rice X 4
• 4 teaspoons of Vinegar
• Wax paper
• Food coloring

How to make color rice:

To make 4 colors of color rice add ⅓ cup of rice to each of the 4 resealable plastic bags. Next, add in 1 teaspoon of vinegar to each of the 4 bags as well as 3 drops of your choice of food coloring to each bag.

Once everything is in the bags, press the air out of the plastic bags and zip closed. Rub the rice in the bag until all the color is mixed in with the rice. Finally, empty your damp rice out on a sheet of wax paper to air dry. Optionally, you can bake for a few minutes to dry.

Now, you can add your color rice to the sensory bottle and any items you are looking to use as well. We used paperclips to make this an extendable activity as the child grows.

Younger children will be delighted at the sound the colorful rice makes and the older children will be fascinated with the magnetic properties of the paper clips and magnets.

I got quite a bit of mileage out of this one between my toddler and my 4 year old. You can also reuse the rice for other activities.

This idea isn’t JUST for a 1 year old!

There are 40 more activities in the book and ALL include an activity variation AND an “As They Grow” section, making this a Grow-With-Them book.

These activities are suited to 1, 2, 3 and even 4 year olds!

You’ll really get your money’s worth!

Know someone who could use this? Share it!