Loom Band Sensory Bottles

Loom bands make ideal fillers for sensory bottles (aka discovery bottles). They are bright and colourful, small enough to easily fit inside any bottle, and float around nicely to create a cool effect. Making your own loom band sensory bottle is easy. It only takes a couple of minutes and 3 ingredients.

I’ve made a quick video to show just how super easy it is to make these simple sensory bottles, so check that out towards the end of the post.

First up – What are sensory bottles?

Sensory bottles are containers that have different materials inside to encourage and keep kids busy as they explore through their senses. You can use sensory bottles, aka discovery bottles or calm down jars, to explore each of the different senses and this loom band sensory bottle focuses on the visual sense. 

Slowly watching the contents of the bottle floating through the water can help to calm or regulate and agitated child, serving as a tool to help them ground themselves and take a moment to process their emotions. 

Or for a younger baby, watching the contents move around inside the bottle is an early lesson on how the world works – floating, sinking, how objects behave in water. 

The benefits of sensory play include the following:

• Development of brain connections
• Sensory awareness and exploration
• Fine motor skills development
• Social development

For a more detailed break down on this topic, read our blog post on What is Sensory Play, and What are the Benefits?

Now that we have that question cleared up – on to the step by step instructions for your loom band bottle. 

How to Make a Sensory Bottle with Loom Bands

To make your loom band sensory bottle you will need the following supplies. 

• A few handfuls of loom bands in whatever colours you have available. These can be bought cheaply in pound shops or toy shops if you don’t have any
• Large empty water bottle. We use Voss water bottles, since I love their clean shape and design.
• A few drops of glycerin
• Water

How to make your loom band sensory bottle

Just drop each item into the bottle: loom bands first, then water, then glycerin. The quantity of glycerin is up to you, it just serves to slow down the motion of the loom bands in the water. If you don’t have any, feel free to miss it out. The sensory bottle will still work, but your loom bands will move a little freer and faster.

If you have a young baby and are worried about them getting into the bottle and into the loom bands, then glue the lid on with a hot glue gun. Since my boys are out of that stage now, we just screw the lid on tightly which makes it easy to change the contents of the sensory bottle whenever we feel like it.

R loved watching the effect of the loom bands moving all around in the water. These sensory bottles are fun and calming for all ages to play with.

Watch the video

These loom band sensory bottles could not be easier to make – watch the video to see the process in action for yourself, and watch the beautiful colours and effect in the finished result.  

More Sensory Bottles

Want to create a full sensory bottle collection for your baby or child? 

You might also like to try making these simple sensory bottles

• Glitter sensory bottle
• Musical shaker sensory bottle
• Water Beads Sensory Bottle
• DIY Sensory Tube
• DIY Sensory Snow Globe

For even more sensory play ideas, follow our Pinterest board

Follow Anna – In The Playroom’s board Sensory play and activities on Pinterest.

And don’t forget to pin this idea for later!