Red White and Blue Stars Sensory Bottle

DIY Patriotic Sensory Bottle – Show your patriotic spirit on Memorial Day, the 4th of July, and throughout the year with a red white and blue stars sensory bottle. An easy 4th of July Sensory Bottle that can help your kids celebrate, calm down, and learn to self-regulate.

Calm down sensory bottles like this 4th of July Sensory Bottle are a helpful tool for children (and adults). Learn more about sensory bottles and their uses in calm down sensory bottles 101.

Related: Patriotic Star Wands

Red, White, and Blue Stars Sensory Bottle

Make a patriotic sensory bottle with the kids for Memorial Day and the 4th of July! Using red, white, and blue star pony beads and water makes this DIY sensory bottle one of the easiest calm down jars to make.

Use it to show your spirit in celebration of the 4th of July, and as a calm down tool if the fireworks get to be a bit overstimulating.

Our goofball daughter loves to play with her 4th of July sensory bottle!

Patriotic Sensory Bottle Materials

Voss bottles (Any bottle from the recycle bin will do)
Goo Gone
Red, white and blue star pony beads
Water
Glue

How to Make a 4th of July Sensory Bottle

1. Peel off the label on the water bottle. Use Goo Gone to remove any remaining residue.

2. Drop red, white and blue star-shaped pony beads into the empty bottle. You can also use regular red, white, and blue pony beads. We used 50, one for each state (see learning opportunities below). We used 17 red, 17 blue, and 16 white stars.

3. Fill the bottle all the way to the top with water.

5. Put the lid on your patriotic sensory bottle and play with it for a day or two to make sure you like the number of red, white, and blue stars that you have placed inside. It’s hard to add more stars, or take some out when the cap is glued on!

6. Glue the lid on once you are sure you don’t want to make any more changes to your red, white and blue stars sensory bottle.

DIY Patriotic Sensory Bottle: Learning Opportunities

I like to make calm down sensory bottles with children as a teaching aid. Putting together this patriotic sensory bottle created 3 main learning opportunities for my daughter.

Bonus points if you can think of one we missed. Share it in the comments below. 🙂

Red, White, and Blue Stars Science Learning Opportunity

Making a sensory bottle with red white and blue star-shaped pony beads and water is a great opportunity to learn about scientific concepts such as weight and density.

Begin by placing the red, white and blue stars in a 1-quart measuring cup filled with water to see what happens.

Do the stars sink or float?

We found that most of the stars sank while others floated and that turned into another opportunity to learn why some sunk while a few floated.

Can you figure it out?

Hint: Did the star pony bead hole fill up with water?

My daughter loves exploring the inner workings of her patriotic sensory bottle up close! lol

Patriotic/History Learning Opportunities

I decided to include a total of 50 red white and blue stars in this bottle to represent each state. This provided an opportunity to teach my daughter a little bit about the history of America and its 50 states.

Another homeschool lesson idea is to share a bit about Memorial Day or Independence Day and why they are celebrated or observed as a holiday in the United States.

Math Learning Opportunities

In order to use 50 red, white and blue stars, they must be counted. This presents an opportunity to add in some math concepts.

Because my daughter can easily count to 50 I decided to add in some skip counting. We ended up making piles of 5 stars each.

My daughter asked if we could have an even amount of red white and blue stars which brought up the concept of division and… you get the idea.

We ended up using 17 red, 17 blue, and 16 white stars because my daughter wanted them to be as even as possible.

Patriotic Sensory Bottle 4th of July Calm Down Tool

Show your patriotic spirit with a pair of star wands or a DIY red white and blue stars sensory bottle. A patriotic sensory bottle is a super fun calm down jar for the 4th of July!

Sensory bottles are most often used as a way to calm an overwhelmed child, they are just as effective for adults. To learn more about DIY sensory bottles check out calm down sensory bottles 101.

If you liked this 4th of July sensory bottle, you may also like this DIY butterfly sensory bottle or this gorgeous glittering mermaid tail sensory bottle. Click on the links to check them out!

For more fun activities check out our summer bucket list seasonal activity guide. Learn more about Rhythms of Play HERE!

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Nell Regan M.A.

Nell has over 20 years of experience working with children and is the founder of Rhythms of Play. She believes in the power of the imagination, learning through play, making this world a greener place to live, and getting outside in all seasons! Learn more…

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