Have you made a calm down jar yet?
These little bottles are an amazing resource for parents! As the name describes they are great for calming down kids who are in timeout, bored & fidgety in the car, anxious or struggling with sensory overload. My favorite part is how easy they are to make and how many different variations are out there!
Check out the following 11 ultimate calm down jar ideas…
The Basics
Your supplies will vary a little depending on which project you choose but for almost any/all of the glitter calm down jars you’ll need the basics…
- An Empty Bottle — This bottle tends to be a popular one or almost any empty bottle with a good lid will do.
- Glitter Glue — like this one.
Don’t Miss These Tips
- Make sure your bottle is sterile & clean before you start.
- Super glue or hot glue the lid shut when you’re finished.
- Here’s a great post explaining why calm down bottles work so well.
11 Must-Make Calm Down Jars
1. Glitter Calm Down Bottle — this is a great place to start with the basic calm down bottle.
2. Travel Size Calm Down Jar — this is pretty much the cutest thing ever!
3. Glowing Sensory Bottle — I love this idea with the light up starts to help calm kids down at night.
4. LEGO Calm down Jar — perfect for the LEGO lover.
5. Weather Sensory Bottles — a bottle for each: cloudy, rainy, snowy, windy & sunny!
Non-glitter calm down jars:
6. Alphabet Jar — the letters do summersaults as they float upward!
7. Hurricane in a Jar — use soap & water to create a hurricane effect! Love that you can choose the color of your hurricane!
8. Ocean in a bottle — these look absolutely gorgeous!
9. Calming “Jellyfish” in a Jar — use a plastic bag to create a jellyfish effect inside your bottle.
10. Color Mixing Bottles — this one is fascinating!
11. I-Spy Discover Bottle — that also doubles as a playful learning tool for phonics practice!
Don’t lose these ideas: Click here to pin it for later.
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Lots of great calm down jars featured here! Thank you for including mine! 🙂
Thanks so much for including our Hurricane Jar! We came up with this idea to make washing hands more fun – but it’s also been a great tool for those stressful moments. Great resource list! Sharing on FB. Best, Sue
Cool idea(s), I think I missed HOW to make one of these. I saw the list of items, but not sure the “recipe”
Each recipe is different based on which project you choose! Click through on the link and you’ll find detailed instructions on each project.
I clicked on each of the links but they didn’t work. The only link that worked was to the amazon site for the glitter glue.
Hey Linda! I’m not sure what happened, so sorry! I checked all the links and they are all working on my end. It might be worth trying to view this post in a different web browser (Chrome, Safari, Firefox, etc.) and then trying the links. Let me know if that doesn’t work.
I love this idea. My 3 year old has sensory processing disorder. I can’t wait to make this for him and try it when he gets upset. This is such a neat tool. Thanks!
So glad you found this post! Can’t wait to hear how he likes his!
These ideas are great. I made the glitter one with the Voss water bottle. I also like that style of bottle. For the first bottle, I used just glitter glue I found in the store and there really wasn’t much “hang” time the glitter. The glitter settled within seconds. For the second bottle, I used the Elmer’s glitter glue and it works much better than the no-name brand. The glitter stays suspended for much longer. I added a little extra glitter along with the glitter glue. Looking forward to trying your other suggestions. Thanks!!!
I added a twist to the calming jar. I added phosphorescent glow in the dark powder (from Amazon) and the calming bottle stays glowing for hours at night. Also, Gatorade and Powerade bottles are super sturdy. I got the minis and made them with my class for science.
Great idea!!
HI. I’m new the the glitter bottle game. I’d like to make the Voss sized ones but would also like to make the travel size ones too.
Do I need to somehow clean the baby oil bottle before I try to use it? If so, how. Also, I see that it says make sure that the bottles are clean and sterile before using.. Again, how do I do this.
TIA!
Kathy
Sorry for the delay in replying. See my reply to your previous comment, hope that helps! Good luck making them!
Hi. I want to make these but noticed you said the bottles needed to be clean and sterilized.
I want to make both the bigger sizes and the travel size, using the travel size baby oil. How do I do that?
You can follow the links in the post for each specific calm down jar and they will have tutorials. 🙂
My boss jar bottles pop at the top if the kids shake them. Any ideas as to how to keep that from happening. I’ve tried putting a ring of glue along the top. But the kids peel this off,
I MADE ONE OF THE GLITTER BOTTLES FOR MY GRANDDAUGHTER, SHE LOVED IT. NOW SHE WANTS ONE IN EVERY COLOR . A LITTLE OUT OF MY BUDGET RANGE. CAN I REPLACE THE GEL GLUE WITH REGULAR CLEAR GLUE? WILL I GET THE SAME RESULTS?
Yes I think you would get the same results with regular clear glue that you get with gel glue!