These Calming Bottles and Sensory Bottles are so simple to make. You can make them yourself in a few minutes or have a child help. We made these when my kids were younger, and they helped calm a stressful situation. A calm down bottle is a great way to help settle anxious children. This is one of my favorite parenting tips!
Jump to:
Why these sensory bottles are awesome
For a younger child with big emotions, these glitter jars make a great sensory toy. Kids get enthralled watching the glitter swirl around. If your kids are a little older, the bottles can be used in conjunction with a time out or cooling off period. Preschools often use these jars for that purpose.
The child simply shakes the bottle up and watches all of the glitter fall to the bottom. This takes approximately 2 ½ minutes to occur. Even just making the calming bottles provides sensory input for kids. If you are looking for more ways to soothe an anxious child, check out these Calm Down Strategies.
Supplies needed to make a calm down jar
- 16 oz plastic bottles with water or you can use these sensory bottles
- Glitter glue (we bought ours in a 3 pack at the dollar store - each bottle is 3oz)
- Glitter (normal glitter or fine glitter will work)
- Jewels
- Glue gun
How to make DIY calming jars
This first part should be done by an adult. You will want to be sure anytime you are using small objects that you supervise your child carefully and keep these away from kids who are likely to put things in their mouths.
Open up your water bottle and pour out a small amount, equal to a sip of water. If the bottle is full it will overflow when you start to add the glitter glue. You can see in the photo above that mine is not quite filled to the top.
Now it's time for the kids to have some fun creating their glitter sensory bottles. Give your child an open bottle of water and some glitter glue. Have them start squeezing the glitter glue into the bottle. Little hands love helping with this step.
You will want to use at least ¾ of a 3oz bottle of glitter glue. This is a great fine motor activity for kids as they use their small hand muscles to squeeze all the glitter glue out.
If you don't have glitter glue, you can use clear glue instead and just add loose glitter to the bottle.
When your child is done squeezing the glue into the bottle, they can choose their favorite colors of loose glitter to add to the bottle. Dad helped with this step as it can get messy. Next, have kids add the jewels. You can use a funnel to help with this step.
What follows was my kids' favorite part - shaking up the mixture. My daughter shook up, down, sideways and every which way.
When you first start shaking, the glitter glue with break into small clumps. But steady, vigorous shaking will break up the clumps and mix the colors of glitter.
The final step in the process is to use a hot glue gun to hot glue the lid to the bottle so your child will not be able to open it up. This is an adults only step. Even with the cap glued on the bottle, you should still supervise your child when they are using it. Some kids out there seem to possess super human strength!
These homemade sensory bottles make great a mindfulness jar and sensory play activity. As kids watch the glitter settle in a glitter water bottle they are practicing being in the present moment. I hope your kids enjoy these as much as mine did back in the day! They make great Sensory Activities for Preschoolers.
Frequently asked questions
I often think there is no such thing as too much glitter, but feel free to dump some out and add more water to the bottle.
Yes, you can, but I don't recommend it since these jars will be used by kids and kids often drop things. I know many people create sensory jars using a Voss bottle, but since they are glass, I avoid them.
The only mess will be made while you are making. Since the cap is glued onto the bottle, this keeps the mess under wraps.
Why do you need chore charts?
They help to motivate kids! Each chore printable has a fun theme and has a place for your child to write their name. There are spaces for you to write daily chores and weekly chores. You can personalize the chores that they will be doing by writing those in. If your chores change from week to week, no problem! Children check off each chore on the day they do it. This is an easy and fun way to get kids to help out around the house!
Trivia Games says
Wow! I made it for my center and my students. It's good! I even made trivia games on this topic for the best of the users.
Jessica says
I wish I could take credit for this great idea as well! So simple, but so great. Thank you for sharing, I think i'll make one for myself.