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Discovery Bottles With all the talk about discovery bottles lately, I thought that I would share some ideas that I have gotten over the last few years. The first I time I was introduced to Discovery Bottles was at a KToT convention in Houston, TX. Some great Kindergarten teachers from Pleasant Grove Elementary in Texarkana, TX had a breakout session which I attended. Some of these ideas are from them, others were found while surfing the net, a few came from Dr. Jean, and a few are mine or teachers from my Kindergarten team. I hope that you find something to use that you haven’t seen before or maybe you just have forgotten.
Glitter Bottle-Fill the bottle with water, add four or five drops of food coloring, then add several spoonfuls of the same color glitter. Ocean Bottle-Fill bottle 1/2 full of mineral oil, baby oil, or cooking oil (not corn oil), then add water to fill. Add 6 drops of blue food coloring. When you rock the bottle from side to side it will simulate waves. Magnetic Bottle 1-Put overhead discs with magnetic bands and colored paper clips inside a bottle. Have magnetic wands available so your children can move them around in the bottle. Magnetic Bottle 2-Put iron filings inside a bottle. Add rice, sand, or cornmeal to fill 1/3 of the bottle. Have magnetic wands available so your children can move them around in the bottle. Magnetic Bottle 3-Fill the bottle 1/2 full of sand. Add nails, pins, paper clips, tacks, and any other small objects that are attracted to a magnet. Have magnetic wands available so your children can move them around in the bottle. Seasonal Bottle 1-Fill empty bottles to half full with seasonal items ( silk autumn leaves, pastel silk flowers, sunflowers, nut, acorns, small plastic Easter eggs). These items can be found at craft stores or dollar stores. Seasonal Bottle 2-Fill the bottom of empty bottles with seasonal craft items, then add colored water or clear corn syrup. Desert Bottle-Put small plastic desert animals ( lizards, snakes), rocks, a cactus, or any other object found in the desert into a dry bottle, then fill 2/3 of bottle with sand. Mud Bottle-Put 1/2 cup of dirt (potting soil) in an empty bottle, then fill the bottle 2/3 full with water. Quiet Bottle-Add colored confetti to the bottom of an empty bottle, then fill the bottle 1/2 full with clear corn syrup. Eclectic Bottle-This is the bottle that you put all of your odds and ends in. Anything that might be in your craft box will work (feathers, cotton balls, popcorn kernels, Styrofoam, beads, sequins, pom poms, pipe cleaners). Static Electricity Bottle-Put squares of tissue paper and little bits of Styrofoam in a clean dry bottle. Your students rub the bottle in their hair or on the carpet to see what happens. Creepy Crawly Bottle-Put plastic insects, spiders, or worms into a dry bottle. Have a magnifying glass available so your students can get a good look. You could even add dirt to the bottle. Potpourri Bottle-Poke holes all around the bottle with an ice pick. Pour 1 cup of potpourri into the bottle. Beach Bottle-Put some sand in the bottom of a bottle. Add some seashells. Birthday Bottle-Pour 1/3 cup of clear cooking oil, baby oil, or mineral oil into the bottle. Add Happy Birthday confetti cutouts and glitter. Put curly ribbon around the neck of the bottle. The small water bottles work best for this bottle. Color Bottle 1-Fill 3/4 of the bottle with water, add 6 drops of blue food coloring, add red lamp oil to the top of the bottle. Color Bottle 2-Fill the bottle to the top with water, then add 6 drops of food coloring. Bubble Bottle-Fill bottle 1/2 full of water, then add a drop of detergent into the bottle. Cheer Bottle-We call ours the Blackcat bottle-Put 2 tablespoons of colored (your school colors) beads into a bottle. Decorate the outside with curly ribbon and your team logo. Crayon Shavings Bottle-Put 1/4 cup of crayon shavings into a bottle, then fill with water. Tornado Bottle-Roll up several pieces of foil into balls. Fill bottle almost full with water, then add a small drop of detergent. You can even add a few drops of food coloring. Concept Bottle-Put anything in a bottle that would relate to your theme. I have one with arrowheads in it. Kinder Kid Bottle-Put small photographs of your students in a bottle. Holiday Bottle-Put any holiday items in a dry bottle. Sound Bottle-Put beans, popcorn kernels, rice, pasta, or peas in a dry bottle. Put a sock over each bottle so that your students have to shake and guess what is in the bottles. After you have filled your bottles, seal the lid with a low temp hot glue gun.
This is how I store my bottles.
Here is an idea that will be lots of fun. Two years ago my kinder team (16 of us) had a make and take for Discovery Bottles. Some of us had already been using them in our classrooms and the others wanted to make some. So we set a date and then each of us brought everything that we would use to make discovery bottles. It was a blast! What better way to pull your team together than to share your stuff. If you have a small team, invite the Pre-K and or 1st grade teachers to come. We used a conference room that had conference tables set up in a square. In advance, make sure everyone is saving water bottles and that they are really dry for the bottles that won't have liquid in them. You can make lots of discovery bottles from one bag of seasonal stuff from Garden Ridge or Hobby Lobby. You may even get together and decide what to go and buy and then share. I had a bottle of iron filings that I had had since I began teaching and had never done anything with them, so several of us got magnet bottles out of them. Why I was keeping them all to myself, I'll never know! So don't spend your summer making them all by yourself, wait and have a great team meeting making Discovery Bottles!
We had another discovery bottle make and take in my classroom this year. After about four years my bottles with corn syrup were not moving anymore. We also had some new Kindergarten teachers that needed to make Discovery Bottles for their classrooms.
Last Updated 04/09/2005
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