We're so excited to be a part of Preschool Inspirations' Dollar Store Discovery Bottle Blog Hop today!
I wasn't quite sure what I was going to put together because there are so so so many fabulous things to use at the Dollar Tree, but eventually I settled on this. And I'm happy to report that even weeks later, all of us are still playing with it (yes, even the adults, hah!).
Making it is SO easy, which makes it even better, right?
You'll need:
A plastic bottle (we are addicted to VOSS plastic bottles, but really any bottle will do)
Soap
A plastic bottle (we are addicted to VOSS plastic bottles, but really any bottle will do)
Soap
Pony Beads
Super glue (optional)
You can actually vary the speed at which your beads fall quite a bit depending on how much of which kind of soap you use. We used 3 bottles of clear Softsoap (handwashing soap) from the Dollar Tree with a few tablespoons of clear dish soap from the Dollar tree mixed in. If you use more dish soap, your beads will fall more rapidly; if you use more of the thick Softsoap, your beads will spend a longer time hanging suspended. Our soap mixture is mainly Softsoap, so the beads take about 20 minutes to travel from the top to the bottom. If there are little hands that are liable to unscrew the lid, I recommend placing a small line of super glue where the tightened lid meets the bottle (and a little on the bottle threading for good measure).
Initially I made this bottle with Mardi Gras bead strands from the Dollar Tree, but after a week the color from the beads began to come off and dye the soap. So I definitely recommend using pony beads or other beads made of colored plastic versus beads with colors painted on.
Soap is a great medium for filling discovery bottles because it's so clear and it does such interesting things with changing the speed with which objects move.
Looking for more ideas for Discovery Bottles using Dollar Tree materials? Be sure to check out the other posts in the blog hop:
Magic Two Ingredient Sensory Bottle | Preschool Inspirations
Weighted Discovery Bottles | Play to Learn Preschool
Marble Color Mixing Discovery Bottle | Still Playing School
Put your favorite children's book in a discovery bottle! | Teach Preschool
Beaded Names Discovery Bottle | Stay At Home Educator
What a fun idea!
ReplyDeleteThank you! Love your marble bottle - SO fun!!!
DeleteWe HAVE to make this!!! I love that it takes so long for it to float up -- those are my favorites!
ReplyDeleteThank you! And thank you for organizing!!! Love your mystery bottle!
DeleteThose are so neat! I made a bottle once with way too much hair gel, and the beads never move. I will have to try your method with the soap added. (Although, watching the kids try to shake the frozen beads loose is entertaining!) Thanks for sharing. :)
ReplyDeleteHahahaha that is pretty funny! And thank you, Jamie! :)
Deleteoooh-what kind of hair gel-looking to suspend glitter almost permanently
DeleteCool! This would work. Any brand that's clear would probably be a great fit. This was the clear hair gel from the Dollar Tree. I don't remember the brand name....
DeleteOoooh I like these - we've made calm bottles with glitter and glue before, but these would make for a cool change. I like that you can change how fast or slow they move - it would be a fun science experiment to try out too!
ReplyDeleteThank you, Jessie! And great idea about turning it into a science project - love that!
DeleteWhere do you find your Voss water bottles?
ReplyDeleteWe used to find them at our local Whole Foods, but they stopped carrying them. :( Now we need to order them from Amazon (I put the link in the post).
DeleteGot mine at Raley's supermarket.
DeleteI've also found that corn syrup works well to add density to a sensory bottle. I also like that it doesn't bubble when shaken like glue does. You have to play around with it a bit to figure out what density you need for the objects you want to use (marbles are fun).
ReplyDeleteI blog at (inourpond.blogspot.com) I'd love for you to stop by if you have some time. I have lots of free preschool printables.
Corn syrup is a fun one but I always manage to get everything so sticky! Your blog looks great and congrats on your upcoming adoption finalization - so exciting!!! :)
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