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Valentine Sensory Bottles and Calm Down Jars

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This collection of valentine sensory bottles are sure to inspire some fun this February. What a great calming addition to your valentine activities for preschoolers.

nine different sensory bottles themed for Valentine's Day and the text Valentine sensory bottles

Related: Valentine Sensory Bin with Water Beads

Valentine Sensory Bottles

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.

three different valentine's day sensory jars with different themed objects inside

Related: Valentine’s Day Science Activities

Materials for Your Valentine Sensory Bottles

Before we jump into the ideas, you need to make sure you’re stocked up on sensory bottle ingredients! Mind you, I’m a big proponent of using what you already have. But if you’re looking for a reason to pick up some new materials, I’ve got you covered. Here are some to consider:

Valentine’s Day Sensory Jars to Check Out

As promised, here’s a collection of valentine sensory bottles perfect for February. You can even make tweaks to each of them for different seasons and holidays.

twelve different valentine's day sensory bottles made with different supplies

Related: Valentine Calendar Numbers free printable

Now, the question is which of the valentine sensory bottles will you make first?

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 go 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 preschool themes. They’re just such engaging early learning tools.

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.

If your students enjoyed the valentine sensory bottles, why not try out one of the fully-developed lesson plan sets below? Click on the images to read more about each of them.

Preschool hearts lesson plan resource cover
Preschool Valentine's lesson plans resource cover

You can also find us on Teachers Pay Teachers.

nine different valentine's day themed sensory bottles in a pinnable collage with the text sensory bottles for Valentine's Day

The post Valentine Sensory Bottles and Calm Down Jars appeared first on Fun-A-Day!.


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