Earlier this week, I expanded upon my preschool craft Fireworks in a Bottle to use a sensory bottle as a reward mechanism to promote this week’s MeMeTales Readathon theme of Positive Character Traits. I can’t wait to share with you today how I made these sensory bottles into a special reward for my children on the 4th of July.
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| Special thanks to Adam Acree for allowing me to use some of his fireworks photos. |
You may remember that through the week, I rewarded positive behavior such as kindness by allowing our preschool son to place various fun objects such as water beads, sequins, and glitter into empty plastic bottles. We emphasized the behavior of the family as a whole showing that kindness and respect are positive traits that not only children need to cultivate but also adults. Rather than compete, we allowed the bottles to be open-ended making the reward less stressful for young children. (To read more: Reward {chart} in a Bottle.)
On the fourth of July, our church provides a wonderful cook-out, complete with a giant water slide and fireworks for the families of our church. For the first time in several years, my whole family was able to enjoy the picnic together, and my children were old enough to be still awake for the fireworks. As the sky darkened, I surprised my kids by giving them the reward bottles with a special addition: patriotic glow sticks.
The bottles looked awesome in the dark, with the glitter and water beads reflecting the glow sticks. When you shook the bottles, they really did remind us of the fireworks that we were about to see.
I also made a couple of extra bottles with just water beads and glitter (the strip-like glitter is best) for friends. I was amazed by how beautiful and firework-like these bottles turned out!
The children loved our fireworks in a bottle. In fact, we ended up giving the baby’s reward bottle to a friend. I thought the bottles were a cute kid-friendly accessory to take to a fireworks show. (And, a lot safer than real fireworks. Though, I did give in and let my kid experience his first sparklers as you can see from the top photo.)
Note: Some of the objects in my Fireworks in a Bottle could present a choking hazard.
Now, my kid keeps saying to me, “You’re nice, Mommy.” and “You cook yummy breakfasts.” hoping that we will make Reward Bottles again. And you know, I think maybe we should, because I like hearing lots of kind words spoken in our home.
Did you make my Fireworks in a Bottle over the 4th of July? If you send a photo, I may feature it on my Facebook wall!
Bethany
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I love this idea – such a different idea to a reward chart as well much more exciting and relaxing. Thank you for linking up to Tuesday Tots and just popping by to let you know that I’m featuring it this week on Tuesday Tots over on Rainy Day Mum
Thanks, Cerys. I will be sure to stop by!
Ooh I love the idea of adding the glow sticks. How fun!
Maggy
ohh what a neat idea! and I’m loving the kind words also.
You can have fireworks year long with this idea!
This is a wonderful way to spark good behavior!
Great way to encourage good behaviour.(I’ve had friends do something similar with sweets- but this is much more healthy for the teeth!)
The bottles look like a lot of fun, I hadn’t thought of adding water beads to them.
Love the bottles, great idea! I think my boys would love them:-) FSPDT
What a great idea! They look fabulous and I bet even more stunning in real life. Is there water in them as well or just the glitter, waterbeads and glowsticks?
(sorry If i missed that while reading!)
No problem, Debs. I did not add water for the ones pictured. I did experiment with water and the water beads blend in, so I like it better without the water. Plus, they bounce. : )
I love the fireworks in a bottle! The glow sticks really give it that WOW factor!
Oh wow! I LOVE this! Glitter, glow sticks, water beads – what’s not to love? I’ve pinned this!
I may do this with my teenagers. Glowsticks look really pretty mixed in with the other shiney, sparkely things! Thank you for the fun ideas!
Thank you so much!