Acorn Sensory Bottle for Thanksgiving

Let’s create an acorn sensory bottle for Thanksgiving. This simple sensory activity includes natural materials like acorns and wood slices. Use it to discuss what you’re thankful for. I get commissions for purchases made through the affiliate links in this post.

I first shared a Thanksgiving sensory bin with similar materials over on Rainy Day Mum. My kids simply adored it. I wanted to extend the activity a bit, so I turned it into a sensory bottle.

Sensory bottles are great for using as a calming activity. There’s something mesmerizing about watching everything move inside the bottle. Plus there’s no mess as long as everything stays inside.

How to Make an Acorn Sensory Bottle for Thanksgiving

Materials Needed to the Acorn Sensory Bottle

Plastic bottle/jar with a wide opening (I used a sensory tube from Learning Resources.)
Acorns (They’re dropping from the oak trees where we live.)
Wood slices (We cut our own. You can also find them at hobby/craft stores.)
Marker

What Are You Thankful for?

Talk to your kids about what you and they are thankful for. What things do you appreciate? Write these items on the wood slices using a marker.

Put the Materials in the Sensory Bottle and Play

Add the acorns and wood slices to the plastic bottle. I used a sensory tube from Learning Resources. I like how tall these tubes are. The opening is nice and wide so you can easily fit in the wood slices. You could also use a clear water bottle with a wide opening or even a peanut butter jar.

The goal is to see the words on the wood slices among the acorns.

Shake the bottle up and hear the sounds it makes.

Roll it around and read the words. Talk about what you are thankful for.

More Acorn Sensory Bottles

Acorn Alphabet Sensory Jar Game – Instead of thankful words, work on letter recognition with this idea from The Educators’ Spin On It.
This Acorn Sensory Bottle from Still Playing School uses acrylic acorns and water.
Use acorns of different sizes in the preschool acorn activity from Teach Preschool. Preschoolers will need to figure out which acorns will fit inside the bottle.

More Ways to Use Acorns

You’ll also love our Acorn Discovery Table.

Check out how we used acorns to make an acorn ninja stop motion video.

Subscribe to the Inspiration Laboratories newsletter. Each issue has exclusive hands-on science explorations for children, a recap of our latest activities, and special resources selected just for you!