The Very Hungry Caterpillar - DIY Discovery Bottle Gift Box

May 18, 2014

The Very Hungry Caterpillar - DIY Discovery Bottle Gift Box

Birthdays are so cool in the eyes of a one year old! Aside from cake, singing 'Happy Birthday', and loads of laughs, smiles, cuddles and kisses, there's all that fabulous wrapping paper, boxes, ribbon, interesting textures, things that make curious sounds when shaken, pushed, thrown or rolled about... and that's when I thought a discovery (or sensory) bottle could be a fun gift!

As I was going about collecting bits and pieces for an Eric Carle: The Very Hungry Caterpillar themed bottle, I decided a 'deconstructed discovery bottle' would be best, because making the bottle is half the fun!! [We LOVED making a bunch of Discovery Bottles last Spring].

Coloured (green) rice for grass
Green beads cut into short strips for caterpillars
Leaves from the craft store, along with green felt and ribbon pieces, and sparkly pipe cleaner shapes
Colourful butterfly beads and sparkly stars (just because they look so great inside the bottles!)
Assorted pom poms, tissue paper balls, card and sponge shapes (food)

I was so tempted to poke all the bits into the bottle and gift a finished discovery bottle - but all of the individual textures individually are so much fun to explore from a (tactile) sensory perspective, and the selecting, grasping, pushing, dropping, pouring of the items into the bottle make the experience so much more valuable!

I cleaned a couple of different sized bottles (for two discovery bottles - or just choice!), and added a party hat which doubles as a funnel to help some of the items (like the rice) to be poured into the bottle. All of the items were packed away in clear snap lock bags inside a shoe box, with some cellophane - because how wonderful does cellophane look, feel and sound?!