Bottles of Spring Play Idea

Spring is in the air and boy, oh boy are we excited! The snow is melting, the sun is warmer, and the kids and I are seeing and hearing all kinds of different signs of spring. This week, as we have been discussing all these various signs of the changing season, we started making a list. We listed all of the things we could think of that reminded us of spring. Then we took our top three favourite signs of spring and bottled them up! We made three little sensory bottles for the babies and toddlers: Spring Rain, Spring Pigs, and a Ladybug Hunt, complete with the first line of three of our favourite rhymes to go along with them. Not only are these bottles fun and easy to make, the babies and toddlers in our group are fascinated by them...

Here's what you need to make these at home:

Spring Rain Bottle:

• water
• cooking oil
• acrylic jewels
• food colouring

Spring Piggies Bottle:

• coloured pasta
• plastic piggies

Ladybug Bottle:

• poppy seeds
• silk flowers
• plastic ladybugs

A Few Helpful Hints:

• Try to use smooth-sided bottles to allow for an unobstructed view.
• Our plastic pigs and lady bugs are the Good Luck Minis from Safari Ltd. They can be purchased on Amazon or a Michaels, The Arts and Crafts Store.
• Pasta is coloured by shaking a few drops of green food colouring in a plastic bag along with dry pasta. Leave the pasta on wax paper to dry.
• I tightened the lids vigorously and wrapped them with decorative washi tape.
• Ribbons were added to the top because we all know babies love ribbons and tags more than anything else! The babies and toddlers really and truly enjoy these little bottles of spring. They search for piggies and lady bugs, counting them as they go along, and they love to shake them as I sing the little rhymes along with them.

The Rain Bottle with the oil and water with the acrylic beads is so fascinating to watch.

And sometimes they surprise me with unconventional play ideas...

Altogether, these bottles have been a successful way to engage the smaller crowd in happy and productive play.