Fireworks in a Bottle: A Simple Patriotic Craft for Preschoolers

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Delivered by FeedBurnerAfter seeing The Iowa Farmer’s Wife’s Sensory Bottles last week, I couldn’t resist trying to make some of my own. What a great idea . . . sensory bottles use common household objects (i.e. practically free), are easy to make, and preschoolers LOVE them. While putting some together, we ended up creating a great Memorial Day craft: Fireworks in a Bottle.

Using red, white, and blue pipe-cleaners, star confetti (recognize that from the Star Wars birthday party), and glitter, I let Ben fill the empty water bottle. Red, white, and blue curling ribbon and buttons would also work well.

After the bottles were filled with the “fireworks”, we then filled them with water. You could also fill them with baby oil or mineral oil to help the glitter float, but I prefer water so that if a leak happens the mess is minimal. I also hot-glued the lids on, since I didn’t want glitter water dumped in some strange part of the house (or the baby ingesting it). This step is a little tricky, but I found that placing the hot glue on the bottom of the bottle rim seemed to work better than hot gluing around the edge of the lid. You have to work quickly and carefully or else you can end up with a lid that is glued on crooked. Note: The glue does seem to loosen over time, so check the bottles occasionally to watch for leaks.

Update:  I love these results from this morning with curling ribbon, glitter stars, confetti, glitter, and buttons! (Bottle on the right.) Also, I noticed that the red and blue did bleed into the water after several hours. Soaking the pipe-cleaners and curling ribbon before use will help the water stay clear.

We ended up with these sparkly bottles of fireworks, perfect for a patriotic holiday! What Memorial Day crafts or activities are you doing with your children?