Take a look at this ocean beauty! Yes, the sea creatures are actually staying suspended!! Did I mention that this discovery bottle was so easy to make!?!
I definitely can’t take credit for this gorgeous sea creature sensory bottle. My friend, Cathy, made one for her preschool class as part of her preschool curriculum and snapped a photo for me. I told her I had to make one of my own, and I asked her if I could share it with you all.
Here are some more views of the ocean blue goodness.
This is by far my favorite ocean themed creation!
Here’s how you can make your own (thank you, Cathy!!!)
This post contains affiliate links of products I love and use on a regular basis
Materials
- Voss Plastic Bottles or any other kind — I bought mine at the grocery store but you can read about all the place to find them or other bottles you could use on my post about How to Make a Perfect Sensory Bottle.
- TOOB ocean creatures
, coral reef set
, baby sea creatures,
or shark set.
- Skewer or stick-like item to get the sea creatures exactly where you want them
- Hair Gel — mine is from the dollar store
- Blue liquid watercolor
(optional)
Don’t make my mistake!!! The hair gel in this photo is much too blue for the entire bottle!! Use a very light color blue for most of the bottle, and you can use the dark blue for the bottom.
Create the Bottle
- Mix the hair gel with a tiny bit of blue liquid water coloring in a plastic bag, or you can leave it clear. The first time I did this I made it way too dark, but I did end up using the dark for the bottom, which made it look more realistic. Err on the side of less is more is my advice for the rest of the discovery bottle! You can always add more blue to the bag if you need it.
- Cut a corner of the bag with the blue hair gel, and squirt a small amount of gel into the water bottle.
- Add a creature, and adjust it with the skewer.
- Add more hair gel then more ocean creatures.
- To make mine I used dark blue at the bottom and lighter blue all the way up.
Next, we decided to put it on the light table. Here’s how gorgeous they looked there!
I am so glad we made this, and there will be hours upon hours of fun with it!
Related Posts:
6 Ways to Make a Calm Down Jar
How to Make a Color Mixing Sensory Bottle
Follow Katie | Preschool Inspiration’s Discovery Bottles board on Pinterest.
Katie T. Christiansen
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shaiba says
July 15, 2015 at 1:11 pmvery beautiful . its looks real… thank you.
Katie says
July 15, 2015 at 2:43 pmI’m so happy to hear that! Thanks for the sweet comment, Shaiba :).
jaime@FSPDT says
July 24, 2015 at 10:31 pmJust love this:)
Katie says
July 25, 2015 at 2:48 pmMe too!!! Cathy is brilliant! 🙂
Pat says
April 18, 2018 at 9:57 amdo your fish move or do they stay in place? If shaken does the water all become one color?
thanks
Katie says
April 22, 2018 at 7:15 pmThey generally stay in place. And eventually the gel does become one color, but it does take awhile.
Di says
May 5, 2019 at 2:24 pmUsing hair gel how long did it last? A short time, still working how old etc. Reason I ask is I have seen some use sanistier.
Katie T. Christiansen says
May 5, 2019 at 5:03 pmHi Di! Mine has lasted years and is still being used. It’s the sensory bottle that keeps on giving :). I hope this helps!
Di says
May 12, 2019 at 1:29 pmWow hair gel, now I have heard of baby oil, liquid hand lotion, Karo syrup. The list just keeps going.