The first year we made our falling hearts glitter jar, I was amazed at how into them the children were. They were placed in our science center in February, and didn’t end up leaving until the end of the school year. The kids loved those Valentine’s Day sensory jars that much.
Honestly, so did the teachers! Some days, before the hustle and bustle of the school day began, a few of my fellow teachers would stop into my classroom. We’d end up sitting in the kids’ little chairs, chatting away, sharing ideas for the week . . . and playing with the calm down jars!
I suppose I shouldn’t have been too surprised. Over the years, I’ve noticed children really get a kick out of all kinds of sensory jars. And I don’t blame them one bit.
There’s just something engaging about manipulating sensory bottles this way and that. The different materials inside each one are eye-catching, and it’s almost as if there’s something new to observe each time.
What Do Kids Learn with Sensory Jars?
To answer that question, I’ll pose another one — what DON’T children learn with sensory jars?! Really, they can be used to touch on almost every single early learning concept imaginable. Here are just a few:
- How to use our senses to observe the world around us
- Hand-eye coordination
- Measurement and counting skills
- Descriptive words of all kinds
- Viscosity
- How to take a break when feeling overwhelmed (they are often called calm down bottles for a reason)
- Letter identification
- Volume
- How to spell names
- States of matter
I kept that list short, as I could have gone on all day about the learning concepts sensory jars can be used to explore. The sky’s the limit really. In fact, I like trying to incorporate sensory bottles within many of my teaching themes. They’re just such engaging early learning tools.
Valentine’s Day Sensory Jars to Check Out
As promised, here’s a collection of sensory bottles that would be perfect around Valentine’s Day. You could even use them for different themes and holidays by making a few tweaks.
Click on each photo below to be taken to the sensory jars’ directions.
Preschool Lesson Plans for Valentine’s Day
Save time and get right to the playful learning with our printable lesson plan sets. Each set includes book suggestions, printable plans, over 30 learning activities (both whole group and centers) related to the theme, and corresponding printables.
Grab the Hearts Preschool Lesson Plans and the Valentine’s Day Preschool Lesson Plans
You can also find us on Teachers Pay Teachers
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