Materials: plastic bottle, uncooked rice, small items (i.e. paper clip, Lego, gem, crayon, marble, bead, clothespin, pencil, etc.), hot glue gun or super glue, piece of paper, writing utensil
- Pour a small amount of rice (about 1 inch) into the plastic bottle
- Add in 1-2 small items
- Repeat until the bottle is 80% full (at least 1 inch open at the top), leaving space for the rice to move while turning the bottle
- Add some hot glue from a glue gun or super glue around the inside of the top of the bottle and twist it into place so that the glue keeps the top sealed shut
- Allow time for the glue to dry
- Let your child explore the sensory bottle and point out/identify each item they can find
- Encourage your child to use the COLOR word to describe each item (a GREEN paperclip, a RED marble, a BLUE Lego) and COUNT the number of items found (2 gems, 3 clothespins, 1 pencil)
- As your child identifies items in the bottle, record what they find on the piece of paper in a list *Have them help determine which letter matches the initial sound of each item (“Pencil starts with the /p/ sound. What letter makes the /p/ sound?”) and record how many of each item were found
- Have your child trace the initial letter (the first letter of the word that they matched the sound of, such as the -p in pencil) and the numeral, while identifying what they are tracing
| gem | 2 |
| pencil | 1 |
| marble | 3 |
| paperclip | 4 |
| clothespin | 2 |
- Enjoy!