DIY Ocean Sensory Bottle
My daughter loves ocean animals. She found her love for them while watching Finding Nemo for the first time. In the spirit of summer, I decided I wanted to help her create her own ocean sensory play/bottle aquarium.
With a lot of scrolling on Amazon, I finally found a set of sea animals that I feel best resembles the characters of Finding Nemo! It includes a clownfish, blue tang, sea horse, sea turtle, octopus, starfish, eel and puffer fish!
Supplies:
- Empty large-mouthed bottle/ empty mouthwash bottle/ empty plastic jar
- Water
- Baby oil
- Blue food coloring
- Glitter
- Small ocean animal figurines
- Superglue
I made this bottle with my daughter and she had so much time helping out with each step. I think her favorite step was adding all of the ocean animal figurines.
**While making this bottle with a toddler who loves animals, I learned a very valuable lesson. Before letting her drop the ocean animals in the bottle, I should have told her that after she dropped them in the bottle she would not be able to get them back out again. Once I attached the lid, she was so sad that she couldn’t hold the animals anymore. Once she settled down, I was able to explain to her that she can now see them swim in the water every time she shakes the bottle. She loves it now.
Instructions:
- Fill your bottle with water a little over halfway.
- Add around 4 drops or so of blue food coloring to your bottle. (Feel free to add more drops if you would like the water to be a bit darker. I added 4 for a light blue tint.) Slowly swirl to mix them.
- Wait a bit for the bubbles to disappear, then slowly add baby oil to the bottle. Try to leave as little air in the bottle as possible.
- Add glitter to the bottle. We went with a fine blue glitter.
- Add sea creatures.
- Place superglue along the edges and sides of the rim. Quickly screw on the lid and seal it tightly.
- Let it stand for the time allotted in the directions of the superglue you used to let it dry. I let mine sit overnight before giving it to my daughter to play with.
Next Time
Next time I think I’m going to make a few minor adjustments. I would love to make it a little more dramatic with a few more drops of food coloring and silver glitter. I think the silver would really pop!
