Magnetic Sensory Bottles – Christmas Activities For Preschool

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My daughter helped me make these magnetic sensory bottles for my 2 & 3-year-old preschool class. I took them in today and the kids had fun exploring with them. I sat with small groups and demonstrated then we investigated the bottles letting them each make the magnets move and grove. The coolest discovery was that we could make the bells jingle without shaking the bottle, just by moving the magnetic wand. That made my day. Little discoveries like these are huge for young kids and also shows me their little minds are engaged.

Make Holiday Magnetic Sensory Bottles

Gather your materials. You will need some empty water bottles with lids, filler like pom poms, beads, colored beans, foil wrapping paper cut into small squares, etc… You will also need some filler that is magnetic like pipe cleaners, jingle bells, and magnetic disks, hot glue gun, washi tape, and of course a magnetic wand.

Start by filling your bottles with the regular filler. I had some help!

If you are using pipe cleaners in your bottles cut them into small pieces. A tip for doing this without bits flying everywhere is to bend the pipe cleaners around the scissors and then hold both ends.

Add the magnetic filler.

Glue the tops on. I add just a little hot glue on the inside of the caps then screw them on. Then I add a little more on the outside.

Wrap a few layers of tape on top to make it pretty, as well as add a little extra protection from the bottles being opened. Please remember that even with the glue kids can find ways into things we never expect them to get into. These, like all our activities, require close adult supervision.

Time to test them out while having some fun.

She loved making the pipe cleaners dance through the foil wrap. Her favorite discovery was that she could lift one of the magnetic sensory bottles up with just the magnetic wand!