Make a special sensory bottle Activity
Learn how to make a sensory bottle for pēpi, this fun activity encourages exploration, learning, and creativity and can help to calm pēpi when they are experiencing big emotions.
Why do it?
A sensory bottle can be awesome for pēpi, it encourages learning through exploration, curiosity, problem-solving and creativity. A sensory bottle can also be used to help calm pēpi from their big emotions.
How to do it
- Find an empty, clear plastic bottle with a lid.
- Head outside to find some interesting things that will fit in your bottle. Let pēpi decide what interests them – it could be pebbles, interesting shaped rākau , shells or coloured leaves.
- Fill the bottle with your chosen items, and add ¾ water and ¼ cooking oil.
- If you have food colouring and/or glitter you could add these too, but they’re not essential.
- Screw (and you might glue) the lid on tight and let the sensory bottle work its magic!
- You might shake the bottle and:
- focus on the bottle’s contents, count each object and describe their shapes and colours
- describe how the rākau and stones float, sink, glide and flip
- watch the contents settle in the sunlight describing the colours, the shine, the glint and brightness
- shake the bottle, notice the objects calming and settling and puku breathe to support you and pēpi to calm too.
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This calming technique can be practised and used to support pēpi when they experience big emotions.
Using more te reo Māori
| Te reo Māori | English |
|---|---|
| Tahi | One |
| Rua | Two |
| Toru | Three |
| Whā | Four |
| Rima | Five |
| Parauri | Brown |
| Kiwikiwi | Grey |
| Kōwhai | Yellow |
| Karaka | Orange |
| Kōhatu | Stone |
| Kōripo | Swirl |
| Mārū | Calm |
| Hīoioi | Shake |
| Pātara | Bottle |
