DIY Shaker Bottle Recipe – Sensory Play for babies

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The holidays are here and I wanted M to partake on the festivities. I have always loved to create crafts around the season.

This year, of course, I wanted M to participate. It is Christmas season so I felt like the perfect way to do it was with a snowman craft. Except, the Pinterest crafts I found were too advanced for him to do at this age. He is only one year old. So we took some inspiration and went to work! The result? I created our own version of the noisemaker holiday style!

The best part, this DIY shaker bottle is a great toy for babies, a toy for one-year-olds to help build and a noisemaker for all kids to enjoy.

Babies and One-year-olds can still do holiday crafts, we just have to give them a little help when gluing and putting the final touches.

When it comes to adding the noise elements into the bottle, let your little one help you. The act of inserting a thing into a container is a great eye-hand coordination activity as well as a pincer grasp practice.

Children learn through play and sensory play is the main way they explore through all their senses.  You can introduce sensory play activities every day and especially over the holidays. With this sensory shaker, your little learner will be exploring and learning as they play.

• Learn cause and effect*
• Explore the sense of hearing*
• Explore the sense of touch*
• Practice pincer grasp*
• Practice eye-hand coordination*

**See conversation starters at the bottom of the post to see how we explore each of the above learning objectives

These fun snowman Sensory Bottles are fun and cheerful and just perfect for little ones to explore. For babies, just ensure that you glue the lid to avoid the bells to fall out as they are a choking hazard.

Shake these snowmen to sing your favorite carols as homemade musical instruments.  

Research shows that sensory play builds nerve connections in the brain’s pathways, which lead to the child’s ability to complete more complex learning tasks. Sensory play supports language development, cognitive growth, fine and gross motor skills, problem solving skills, and social interaction.

Educational Playcare

Need Visuals?

Here are the easy steps:

1. Grab a plastic container, wash and remove the plastic cover.

2. Cut the scarf using felt sheet, and add the snowmen face with a sharpie.

3. Place the bells inside the bottle, glue the scarf and the snowmen buttons

4. Enjoy your snowman shaker!

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Make a fun snowman shaker for the holidays!

A post shared by Activities For Babies (@baby_playideas) on Nov 28, 2019 at 9:52am PST

Conversation Starters with the DIY shaker bottle

We want to make sure we work on developmental milestones and explore through play as we create and play with this fun craft.

Here is a few ways you can explore learning through play:

Practice pincer grasp / Practice eye-hand coordination: Holding things with index finger and thumb. Can you grab a bell and place it inside this container? Let’s count as we drop them all in. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. Good job! (repeat a few times before continuing with the craft)

Learn cause and effect: If I shake – it makes a noise. Look at me shake it, can you shake it?

Explore the sense of hearing: shake, shake, shake, what do you hear? I hear bells. Can we shake to the rhythm of our favorite holiday song? Play jingle bell song…

Explore the sense of touch: ooh! Look at that soft scarf and those bumpy beans. Can you touch them? how does it feel? is it bumpy?

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