Christmas Counting I-Spy Discovery Bottle

This discovery bottle holds so many possibilities. It is both an I-spy game and a tool to help kids learn their numbers, all within a Christmas sensory bottle.

Materials needed:

• epsom salt
• small holiday shaped items – small holiday buttons work well
• jingle bells (no sound from them though because they fill up with the epsom salt)
• empty water bottle (I used a Voss water bottle because I like the look of them)
• optional: clear or silver glitter

Start pouring some epsom salt into an empty water bottle, pausing here and there to throw in a few of your small items. Leave some space in the bottle so that it can be shaken and moved to find the items more easily.

In my Christmas sensory bottle, I put:

1 Christmas tree
2 gingerbread men
3 penguins with Santa hats
4 mittens (2 green, 2 blue)
5 snowmen
6 stars
7 snowflakes
8 red jingle bells
9 green jingle bells
10 mini Christmas lights

It’s amazing how much will fit in there!

I didn’t secure the lid of my Christmas sensory bottle because my kids are older and I thought we may need to open it again but for younger kids, I suggest securing the lid to the bottle once it’s filled. You can do this by using a hot glue gun.

It probably goes without saying, but since the discovery bottle contains small items, supervision of younger children is required even if you have secured the lid.

Next, write or type up a list of the items in the bottle so that the kids can reference it when they are seeking. The reason I chose to add groupings of items is so that kids could practise counting as they tried to find items.

If you are looking for other holiday sensory ideas, you may want to check out our Winter Wonderland Sensory Bin.

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