These Earth Day discovery bottles are fun and easy for kids to make and play with too. Sensory or discovery bottles are awesome for little hands. Enjoy simple science concepts within these earth inspired discovery bottles. Easy supplies make Earth Day or any day discovery bottles perfect for early learning! We enjoy simple science activities all year round.
We made a few Earth Day discovery bottles for preschool science exploration this week. Our science discovery bottles have always been popular with my son! He especially loved our Tornado in a Bottle experiment!
Preschool science is a great opportunity to explore simple science concepts in a playful way. Our Earth Day discovery bottles also have a great Earth theme with green and blue colors for ocean and land!
Earth Day discovery bottles are simple to make! I love the VOSS water bottles. Although a bit of an initial investment, they have been easy to clean and save for another activity!
My son enjoys helping to fill the bottles. These Earth Day bottles are perfect for opening up great conversations about the Earth, Earth Day, and saving our planet as well as looking at some cool science concepts like magnetism and density.
TIP: Check out more Earth Day activities for preschoolers!
5 Earth Day Sensory Bottles To Make
Starting left to right in the above picture, each bottle has a different sensory and science idea to explore!
Bottle 1: Oil and Water
We filled the bottle halfway with water and used blue food coloring to make it blue like the ocean. We add baby oil until the bottle was almost full. Make sure to leave some space at the top, so you can move it around like a wave. Watch what happens to the oil and water. Learn about why oil and water don’t mix.
Bottle 2: Magnet Science
Fill a bottle with water and add paper clips {dollar store colored paper clips work great}. Use a magnetic wand to move them around in the water! Learn about the force of magnetism.
Bottle 3: Glitter Sensory Bottle
Sensory bottles with glitter can be fun and cheap to make. He wanted to add something to shake around so he used his marbles and stuck with our green and blue Earth theme! Check out how to make our inexpensive glitter sensory bottles with this post.
Bottle 4: More Magnets Discovery Bottle
We used the magnets from our magnet set this time to see how they would work with our magnetic wands. We also counted out the continents and the oceans for the magnetic balls. This was a great opportunity to talk about the continents and oceans!
Bottle 5: Nature Discovery Bottle
Go on a nature walk in your local area. What can you find? We filled this discovery bottle with rocks, shells, pine cones, and sand. We talked about the land and the things we find on the land!
TIP: Make sure to add a magnifying glass and a magnetic wand for your Earth Day Discovery Bottles to encourage exploration!
We enjoy leaving our discovery bottles in a basket on the table or bookshelf for a week or two. Everyone takes a look at them and enjoys them. It always seems to encourage a few new conversations about the Earth, science, and the world around us.
More Fun Earth Day Activities For Preschoolers
Printable Earth Day STEM Activities Pack
Celebrate Earth Day with STEM! 220+ Pages of Earth Day science activities and STEM projects for kids that are easy to set up and fit into your available time, even if it’s limited!
STEAM Mini Pack added three hands-on activities for acid rain, stormwater runoff, and carbon footprints!
- Printable Earth Day theme STEM activities that are simple but engaging for home or classroom. Perfect for K-3/4 and beyond but easily adaptable to many skill levels.
- Dive into simple background science explanations to share with kids while they explore hands-on and playful experiments, projects, and activities such as cleaning up oil spills, exploring water filters, and more!
- Engaging Earth Day Engineers pack with theme activities, journal pages, and design process steps! Learn about the design process and think like an engineer while you design and build a better recycling can and more!
- Easy to gather supplies makes these STEM activities ideal when you have limited resources available. Specialty activities include growing a grass head, making an insect hotel, DIY birdseed ornaments, and more!
- Additional STEM activities also Include a recycle sort, brick building ideas, puzzles, and screen-free coding activities.
- Earth Day Bingo Activity Pack is included as well.
Where can I purchase these discovery bottles (without the contents, of course). They seem sturdy and durable and perfect for my toddler classroom. Where can I find them to purchase?
Voss water bottles in any grocery store or on Amazon
From experience, VOSS are a no gonfor my preschool room. Expensive bottles and while sturdy, the lids crack and break easily. I use smart water bottles for mine. Thick sturdy plastic and no lid to worry about breaking. It is a bummer though because the VOSS bottle do look so amazing! $12 on plastic water bottles and they didn’t last a day. Boo.
That’s too bad! I hope you find a good one for your needs. Maybe gatorade bottles! You can also wrap colored duct tape around the lids and that might help them from cracking. It’s also a nice way to add color to a theme.