Desert Flower Discovery Bottle

One of my favorite places to visit is Arizona. The palm trees, cactuses, yuccas, oleanders and other unique plants are all a sight I can’t wait to see. This last time I visited I decided to put a desert flower into a discovery bottle. I found a beautiful blooming yucca, and my kids and I decided it would work perfectly as a desert flower discovery bottle.

It is a great way to explore a beautiful plant in a new light. It looked artsy even.

Desert flower discovery bottle

There are many plants in Arizona (and many other parts of the world) that are toxic. Our yucca is not poisonous to humans, although it is for animals. It is important for me to teach the children to be careful with plants, especially our littlest who is a toddler. Toddlers happen to have a reputation for putting items in their mouths, and our little sister is no exception.

If you are looking for more resources about which plants are poisonous, you can find a list of poisonous plants here.

We have a greenhouse in our backyard, so the children are used to picking and eating from it. It can be confusing for children to understand the difference between edible plants and poisonous plants, but it is important to help them through the process and to educate ourselves about plants.

Placing the yucca in a sensory bottle was a perfect way to explore it. I got the idea to place a piece of nature into a discovery bottle from the book, A Little Bit of Dirt: 55+ Science and Art Activities to Reconnect Children with Nature. In the book, there are so many beautiful and creative ways to make art out of nature. The one that caught my eye first was putting plants into sensory bottles.

You can see the gorgeous idea on the cover. I also love the idea for blowing dandelion bubbles and making drums during a gentle rain!

Our desert flower discovery bottle lasted for several days before it started losing color and fading. And now we are on the lookout for even more amazing flowers and plants that might be a perfect fit for our sensory bottle. In case you are wondering, our water bottle is a VOSS water bottle. You can read about all the places I’ve found it in my post about “How to Make a Perfect Sensory Bottle.”

Now here are some more amazing nature discovery bottles!

Vegetable Garden Discovery Bottle | Sunny Day Family

How to Make an Earthy Explorations Soil Discovery Bottle | One Time Through

Simple Spring Nature Sensory Bottles | Lemon Lime Adventures

Sea Shells Sensory Bottle | Rhythms of Play

Calming Nature Sensory Bottle | Sugar Aunts

Citrus Themed Nature Discovery Bottle | Where Imagination Grows

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Katie

Creator at Preschool Inspirations

Katie has spent 15 combined years in the Early Childhood field as a teacher, preschool owner, and educational speaker. She has worked in profit and non-profit programs, high-risk schools, as well as her in-home preschool. Parenting and homeschooling fill her days now with her three children in Phoenix.

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