Sensory jars are such fun to make with the kiddos. In addition to the entertainment value, a lot of early learning concepts can be taught with discovery bottles. Here are two pumpkin glitter jar ideas we recently came up with. They’re pretty simple, but we’re still rather fond of them.
To start off this little project, we made sure to have two clean, empty round bottles. We used recycled bottles from a flavored water drink, but I’m sure there are round bottles to be found at a lot of craft stores.
Once the jars were cleared out, we measured how much water would fit in each. About one-and-a-half cups of liquid fits inside the round bottles we used. We poured about a cup’s worth of light corn syrup into a measuring cup, and then we added a half cup of hot tap water. The kiddo and I mixed the liquids together in the measuring cup until they were combined. All the liquid was then poured into the empty bottle.
Then it was time for the fun part – glitter! These discovery bottles are perfect, even if you aren’t a fan of glitter like I am. The glitter is contained, so the only possibility of a glittery mess is if you spill some while making the jars. Not that I’ve ever done that or anything. . .
We decided to make two different pumpkin jars with two different types of glitter. In one of the bottles, we added jack-o-lantern confetti. In the other, we combined a variety of orange glitter from my “good glitter” stash. You know you love glitter when you have a distinction between the “glitter” and the “good glitter” stashes!
Once we’d added enough glitter to both bottles, we put the tops on. The tops are blue, so Engineer suggested wrapping green pipe cleaners around them to act like pumpkin stems. I hot glued two pipe cleaners to each top, and made sure to secure the jar tops as I was doing so.
Then it was time to just shake up each glitter jar and observe as the glitter and confetti floated and settled. We liked the ratio of corn syrup to water with these jars. If you want the glitter to settle faster, you could try using less corn syrup.
what can kids learn with a glitter jar?
As I mentioned earlier, there are lots of learning opportunities while making and using glitter jars. Here are just some of the educational benefits of a discovery bottle:
- Number identification
- Color identification
- Cause and effect