Seaside Sensory Bottle

This week on my Facebook page I’ve been sharing crafts and activities linked to the story Miffy at the Seaside as part of my 6 Stories For Summer series. We love sea crafts for kids and I’ve been so inspired by the great ideas out there that I thought it would be nice for me and The Toddler to try our hand at a new craft of our own and so we made this seaside sensory bottle.

As soon as I managed to get his sister to rest I got our supplies ready.

We had rice which I dyed yellow to represent the sand (food colouring plus a bit of hot water on dry rice), shells collected from the beach, including one which he’d previously painted pink. Foam and foil stars to represent the starfish and I cut out fish and jellyfish shapes from a bit of blue foam. The bottle I used was a washed up and dried This Water one because I think they have the nicest shape!

Then all we had to do was fill it!

I wasn’t sure if my son would be that interested in it but I placed it all on the floor and he instantly came over and sat down next to it, asking me about all the bits. We discussed colours and what we like at the beach and he put it all in the bottle. A quick moment here to point out that anyone who tells you that making sensory bottles is somehow mess free is possibly not making them with a three year old. Pictures of my floor were instagrammed before I swept. Obviously do your bottle up very tightly, you can glue the lid on if you’re that way inclined or have kids that will want to tip it all over the floor.

I’m really pleased with how this turned out. Once the baby woke it was something new and cute to keep her occupied and The Toddler enjoyed it enough that he then demanded to make more bottles so I had to hunt through the recycling pile for more which we filled with the more traditional feathers, pasta and umm, an ice lolly stick he’d just finished with. Don’t think I’ll be keeping that one for posterity.

Don’t forget to follow Crafts on Sea on Facebook where I’ll be sharing story inspired crafts and activities all summer and check back here for weekly round-ups of them!