Fall is breathtakingly beautiful. There's the swirling colorful leaves. The crisp cool air. The sound of leaves crunching beneath your feet. The other sounds of fall, like the constant honking of geese flying overhead, which, admittedly, isn't beautiful after a while (can you tell I'm Canadian?!). But seriously, what's not to like about the fall season?
Well, aside from the goose poop and knowing that winter is just weeks away...
Anyway, the point is that fall is simply too short here so we've got to try and cram in as many fall activities (or a fall sensory bin or two) as possible before it's cold and miserable outside. It would be so much easier if we could bottle fall up!
Which is exactly what we're going to do with these gorgeous fall sensory bottles for kids.
These DIY sensory bottle ideas are perfect for a quick mess-free fall sensory activity, a light table activity, or even as a calming strategy. You can add one of these sensory bottles to your child's calm down kit for a couple of weeks or months, just to switch things up.
Useful Materials for Making Your Own Sensory Bottles for Fall
It's really easy to make your own sensory or discovery bottles at home, no matter the season or theme. You simply add some materials to an empty sensory bottle or jar, twist on the lid, and shake it up.
While you'll find lots of individual sensory bottle instructions below, there are some common materials used. Here are some materials you might need to make a fall inspired sensory bottle:
- A clear plastic bottle - VOSS water bottles are usually the popular choice due to their shape and size. They make excellent DIY sensory bottles.
- Glitter, confetti, and/or sequins in fall colors - Think orange, yellow, gold, copper, brown...Or look for fall leaf shaped confetti
- Natural materials like various colors and shapes of leaves, pine cones, acorns, berries, tree clippings, sticks, etc.
- Fall themed manipulatives such as fabric leaves, beads, or acrylic table scatter (you can usually find leaves, pumpkins, and acorns)
Fall Sensory Bottles for Babies, Toddlers, Preschool, & Beyond!
Are you looking for fall sensory bottles for babies? Or perhaps some autumn inspired calm down bottles for toddlers and preschool might be what you are looking for? Either way, these 10+ ideas should be enough to get you inspired to create your own.
Some of these ideas use natural elements. And others take inspiration from the colors of fall leaves and use different types of materials like beads, confetti, and glitter. But all are so beautiful to look at and I know you're going to find one you love.
1. Windy Fall Leaf Sensory Bottle from Rhythms of Play (pictured) - With gold glitter and acrylic fall leaves, this bottle perfectly captures a windy fall day. Your little ones will be mesmerized by it.
2. Fall Leaf Discovery Bottle from Preschool Inspirations - If you like to avoid glitter as much as possible (that stuff gets everywhere!), then this sensory bottle is perfect for you. It's similar to the one above. It just doesn't use glitter.
3. Simple Fall Sensory Bottle from The Chaos & the Clutter - I love the combination of leaf confetti and sequins in this bottle. It's so pretty.
4. Acorn Sensory Bottle from Still Playing School (pictured) - Skip the leaves and make an acorn themed sensory bottle instead. This one looks lovely on or off the light table, as you'll see. That shouldn't be surprising though given that most sensory bottle materials are great for light table play as well.
5. Natural Sensory Bottles for Fall from Little Bins for Little Hands - Prefer to use natural items? These sensory bottles use real items from nature including pine cones, acorns, leaves, and tree clippings.
6. Fall Leaves Glitter Sensory Bottle from Simple Everyday Mom - This autumn sensory bottle is gorgeous with all the copper glitter and leaf confetti in it. Your kids are going to love watching all the glitter settle in it!
7. Fall Glitter Sensory Bottle from Teaching Mama - There are no leaves or acorns in this one. Instead, it uses big, chunky autumn colored glitter. I like that it's so different from the others on this list.
8. Fall Sunset Sensory Bottle from Teaching Mama - This bottle is also really different from the others on this list, using something really unique. Plus, it doubles up as a science activity.
9. Fall Nature I Spy Bottle from Mama. Papa. Bubba. - This I spy bottle uses natural items like berries, leaves, and clippings. The key here though is to take a picture of all the materials first before you add them to the bottle. That way you can turn it into an interactive treasure hunt in a bottle.
10. Fall Sensory Bottle from Teaching Mama (pictured) - A nice and simple sensory bottle using acrylic fall table scatter.
11. 4 Fall Sensory Bottle Ideas from Views from a Step Stool - Learn how to make four simple autumn sensory bottles using materials found at the dollar store. I like the one that uses fall colored beads.
12. Sensory Bottle with Confetti Leaves from Teaching Mama - I like the combination of orange sequins and leaf confetti in this bottle. I bet it's super engaging to watch.
13. Pumpkin, Leaf, & Scarecrow Sensory Bottle Ideas from Fireflies & Mudpies - The scarecrow themed one is extremely unique. I also love the use of leaf stickers on the outside of the bottle for one of the other ideas.
There are so many beautiful ideas above! Which of these fall sensory bottles are you going to try first?
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