Ocean sensory bottle

We made an ocean sensory bottle complete with shells, fish, seaweed and sand! This was one where my preschooler was brilliant at making it, and then my toddler was the one fascinated by it afterwards.

For this you will need –

• Fuse beads and a board
• Plastic bottle with a lid
• Sand
• Shells
• Blue food colouring and water
• Baby oil (you can substitute vegetable oil, but the colour will be different)

First, I made the fish and seaweed out of fuse beads as per above, and then ironed them so they were ready to go in the bottle. For older children, you could get them to design their own.

The boys then put some sand in the bottom of their bottles, followed by some water coloured with blue food colouring up to around 1/2 way up the bottle. Then add the shells and the fish. Finally, squeeze in the baby oil leaving space at the top so it can swish around. Then play with it! You can turn it upside down and see everything float/swim about. It’s quite therapeutic!