Sensory bottles are fantastic fun for young children but might take a bit of practice to get right. They are inexpensive to make and can be themed to whatever your child happens to be interested in. We had great fun with these magnet sensory bottles made for pirate week at school.
We just used an empty soda bottle for ours, but any plastic bottle with a lid works perfectly. Just make sure the lid doesn’t come off easily and rinse well before use.
If you like this idea, don’t forget we’ve got lots more preschool science experiments to try.
Magnet Sensory Bottle
This magnet sensory bottle is a super simple sensory activity perfect for introducing the concept of magnetism to little ones.
We did find the water went cloudy after a few days, so it’s not an example of a long lasting sensory bottle, but definitely fun while it lasted!
Capturing Parenthood has a lovely pipe cleaner sensory bottle with no water, which looks great too!
Materials
Water
Pirate ‘treasure’
Bottle with lid
Coloured rice/pasta
Small magnetic and non objects
A magnet
Pasta and Rice Sensory Bottle
Instructions
Carefully pour the coloured rice and pasta into the bottle, add the small objects, and give it a good shake.
Use the magnet to move the magnetic objects around the bottle and ask children to see how many different magnet objects they can find.
How to colour rice and pasta
Pour your rice or pasta into a bowl.
Add a small amount of vinegar and food colouring and mix well.
Leave to dry.
Water bottle Sensory Bottle
Fill up a bottle about ¾ full with water and add pirate treasure and coins.
Use a magnet to find the coins.
What’s your favourite magnetism activity?
Extension ideas
Find out whether a plastic bottle works better than a glass bottle.
Experiment with different strength magnets.
We used the Learning Resources Super Magnet Classroom Lab Kit to create this activity.
More Magnet Experiments for Preschoolers
Go magnet fishing with a magnet hung onto a rod and a tray of magnetic and non-magnetic items.
We love this mess free magnet learning centre from Left Brain Craft Brain.
Make a magnet maze. We love these as you can theme them in so many different ways.
Fun Learning For Kids has a brilliant rainbow magnet sensory bottle.
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Last Updated on November 14, 2023 by Emma Vanstone
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