Sensory Jars for Toddlers

While Miss G and I have put together and enjoyed all kinds of sensory bins, we’ve never actually made sensory jars or bottles of any sort.  Although I wasn’t sure that Grae would like them as much her usual sensory bins due to their more ‘hands off’ nature, I decided we’d whip up a few today and give them a try.

In order to make the most of them, I knew I wanted Gracen to be involved in the putting the sensory jars together.  I gathered up a bunch of materials while she napped and set them out as a little surprise for when she woke (we also ended up using some shampoo on a whim during the activity).  Since I had the time and the paint on hand, I chose to give our jar lids a quick coat of silver spray, but it isn’t necessary.

When Grae woke up, she was excited to started.  She pretty much led the way, and I just made sure we had some water and one of the thicker liquids (baby oil, cooking oil, or bubble bath) in each jar.  One thing was for certain – there needed to be glitter in every jar.  No exceptions there.  The other thing I found interesting was that Miss G automatically colour coordinated the glitter with the coloured water (hmmm… wonder where she gets these things from??)

This part of the activity was really fun.  It reminded me of when I was little and mixing up potions and concoctions in the kitchen seemed like the best thing in the whole world. (It kind of still felt like that… Maybe some things never change?)

Here are Grae’s creations:

(The blue one is the exact same combination as this one, but with blue water and glitter.)

When Grae declared her jars done, I ran a thick strip of hot glue around the inside of each of the lids, then quickly screwed them on as tight as I could. Once they’d cooled, I tried my darndest to unscrew one of the lids, and couldn’t, so I decided they were good to go.

We were headed out into the backyard to splash in the pool, so along the sensory jars came.  Gracen really liked shaking them up and watching “the sparkles dance”.  

Here’s a look at the jars just after shaking them.  Photos don’t do them justice, but they’re quite mesmerizing actually… calming even, so I can see why parents who use time outs would find these to be a helpful time out ‘tool’.

While sensory jars may not bring about as much play as sensory bins do (for Miss G at least), they’re a great addition to our collection of sensory goodies and will be finding a Grae-friendly spot in our house as soon as she’s had a few good days with them in her bedroom.

♥

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