Sensory play: exploring colour

An easy way for babies to explore colour, light, and the properties of liquid, is to use coloured water jars. I made a set for Frida this morning and so far they have been a big hit.

To recreate these all you need is:

• Small jars or bottles (I prefer to use real glass ones, under supervision of course)
• Water
• Food colouring (I used gel as I thought the colour would be stronger)

I only had blue, red, and yellow food dye, so I mixed up the green myself. The colours are much stronger than they look in the image above – the weather at the moment in London is grey and rainy so I’m struggling to take bright photos.

She spent a long time shaking the jars, looking at them and taking them out of their basket. She also had some wooden bricks out so we spent some time looking at these with her colour jars, with me pointing out the different colours. Once she is bored of the jars I will look at playing around with the content, perhaps adding gels or objects to make the liquid different.

This set currently sits on her shelves in the dining room. In the sitting room she has a set of three little Kilner jars containing rice,  lentils, and silver sugar balls, which are great for shaking and further sensory exploration.

Using jars for sensory play has limitless options and variations. What are your favourite things to use?