Calm-Down Bottles
Last Friday, during my preparation day (I swear, I keep TRYING to get music therapy scheduled on Fridays, but teachers just don't seem to want extra music therapy on Fridays...), I made some calm-down bottles.
"What are calm-down bottles?"
Well, interested fellow therapist, these are things that I found on Pinterest. There are many different ways to make these bottles, but I decided to use glitter and water to make mine. I also made something similar with rocks and water, but I decided that this version would be the glitter based bottle.
Here's the idea. The bottle gets shaken by a person approaching a crisis emotional state. That person then has until the glitter settles down to be in "time away" or "cooling down" mode.
Here are mine. The first picture here is the glitter bottles in their more relaxed state (I'll explain the glitter concentrations in a bit) and the second picture is what the bottles look like when they are shaken (agitated? In the midst of upheaval? In crisis??).
We used these in music therapy sessions yesterday. It was fascinating to see what my clients did when they saw the bottles.
First, though, let me tell you how I made them.
I have lots of empty water bottles in my music therapy storage, somewhat because I use bottled water for my water consumption - medical issue and a LONG story, and somewhat because I just can't seem to throw away something that can be repurposed. I've been thinking about these types of projects for quite some time, and I finally got the "recipe" and found almost everything that I wanted on sale!!
The recipe that I used was pretty simple. You need hot water, clear glue, glitter glue, and glitter for this version of a calm down bottle. At first, the blogger that I got the idea from recommended that I put all this together in a big bowl, but I didn't. I just mixed things right in the bottle. The only thing that happened to begin with was that one of the bottles had a large clump of glitter in it, but that dissipated with some shaking and time.
Okay - the best combination included about a third of the bottle with glitter glue, glitter, and clear glue. After that, I added the very hot water and started to shake. I can understand why a bowl is recommended, especially when you are making these with kids - it's hot, but I used a pot holder and was able to make everything in the same bottle.
My bottles are all different. The light blue one is about half glue and glitter and it takes FOREVER to settle. It was my first one, so I consider it more of a visual stimulator than a calm-down bottle. It is very pretty and somewhat mesmerizing to watch - kind of like watching the stars in the sky. The red and gold bottle is a third glue and glitter and it is the medium one. It is very glittery. The gold one is the fastest to separate and settle. I added about a half inch of baby oil to that one, and I think that baby oil will be something that I have in the bottles that I want to use for calm-down bottles from now on. The glitter moves in interesting swirls and then settles and separates into layers in about 5 minutes - not a bad amount of time to calm.
I then superglued the lids to the bottle (and will be adding another layer of superglue to the lids after we used them yesterday).
So, how did I use this yesterday?
Our musician of this past month was Enya. I found that her music was a good accompaniment for the bottles. We could make the bottles move to the music and the glitter seemed to enrich the music listening process for many of my clients. They asked questions about how to make the bottles. They shared when they had made them in other places. We were able to entrain our breathing to both the music and the glitter swirls.
I have more materials, so I'll make some more bottles today. I bought some rainbow loom bands, so I'll be putting some different things into the new versions. I have some confetti in my craft room that would enhance the visual experience for some of my clients, so that will go in.
I've got the bottles.
This post really should have been on Make It Monday, but I am just so interested and happy that this worked with my clients, so here it is - three days early!
Happy Friday, all. I am looking forward to my Saturday without obligation!
"What are calm-down bottles?"
Well, interested fellow therapist, these are things that I found on Pinterest. There are many different ways to make these bottles, but I decided to use glitter and water to make mine. I also made something similar with rocks and water, but I decided that this version would be the glitter based bottle.
Here's the idea. The bottle gets shaken by a person approaching a crisis emotional state. That person then has until the glitter settles down to be in "time away" or "cooling down" mode.
We used these in music therapy sessions yesterday. It was fascinating to see what my clients did when they saw the bottles. First, though, let me tell you how I made them.
I have lots of empty water bottles in my music therapy storage, somewhat because I use bottled water for my water consumption - medical issue and a LONG story, and somewhat because I just can't seem to throw away something that can be repurposed. I've been thinking about these types of projects for quite some time, and I finally got the "recipe" and found almost everything that I wanted on sale!!
The recipe that I used was pretty simple. You need hot water, clear glue, glitter glue, and glitter for this version of a calm down bottle. At first, the blogger that I got the idea from recommended that I put all this together in a big bowl, but I didn't. I just mixed things right in the bottle. The only thing that happened to begin with was that one of the bottles had a large clump of glitter in it, but that dissipated with some shaking and time.
Okay - the best combination included about a third of the bottle with glitter glue, glitter, and clear glue. After that, I added the very hot water and started to shake. I can understand why a bowl is recommended, especially when you are making these with kids - it's hot, but I used a pot holder and was able to make everything in the same bottle.
My bottles are all different. The light blue one is about half glue and glitter and it takes FOREVER to settle. It was my first one, so I consider it more of a visual stimulator than a calm-down bottle. It is very pretty and somewhat mesmerizing to watch - kind of like watching the stars in the sky. The red and gold bottle is a third glue and glitter and it is the medium one. It is very glittery. The gold one is the fastest to separate and settle. I added about a half inch of baby oil to that one, and I think that baby oil will be something that I have in the bottles that I want to use for calm-down bottles from now on. The glitter moves in interesting swirls and then settles and separates into layers in about 5 minutes - not a bad amount of time to calm.
I then superglued the lids to the bottle (and will be adding another layer of superglue to the lids after we used them yesterday).
So, how did I use this yesterday?
Our musician of this past month was Enya. I found that her music was a good accompaniment for the bottles. We could make the bottles move to the music and the glitter seemed to enrich the music listening process for many of my clients. They asked questions about how to make the bottles. They shared when they had made them in other places. We were able to entrain our breathing to both the music and the glitter swirls.
I have more materials, so I'll make some more bottles today. I bought some rainbow loom bands, so I'll be putting some different things into the new versions. I have some confetti in my craft room that would enhance the visual experience for some of my clients, so that will go in.
I've got the bottles.
This post really should have been on Make It Monday, but I am just so interested and happy that this worked with my clients, so here it is - three days early!
Happy Friday, all. I am looking forward to my Saturday without obligation!
I need to make some of these!
ReplyDelete