Making ‘visibottles’ and ‘swishy bottles’

Very young babies will enjoy watching things that move: mobiles, ribbons moving in the wind, washing in the machine or on the line, branches outside a window, pictures which change with each turn of a page in a shared book. Visibottles and Swishy bottles help babies to:

• Look, and think about what they see and hear
• See what happens when they shake, move and wiggle things

You will need

• A few different-sized plastic bottles with secure lids, food colouring, shiny bits, glitter or coconut, floating objects, superglue to secure lids.

To make a visibottle:

• Take an empty plastic squash or mineral water bottle and half fill it with water
• Add a few drops of detergent – or food colouring or tinted bubble bath – or glitter – or coconut to make ‘snow’
• Screw down the lid securely

To make a swishy bottle

• Half fill a larger plastic bottle with water and colouring (adding cooking oil will make the objects move around more slowly)
• Add small floating objects like beads, buttons, a table tennis ball, bottle tops or corks
• Secure the lid firmly with superglue