Skip to content
Bottle in water with bugs inside

How To Make An Ocean In A Bottle

This crafty activity is a crowd-pleaser. Help them make this mesmerising ocean in a bottle.

Make waves with this mesmerising mini seascape by recycling an old bottle!

HOW TO MAKE OCEAN IN A BOTTLE

GRAB THESE MATERIALS…

  • A clean transparent bottle with lid

  • Blue food colouring

  • Funnel

  • Vegetable oil or baby oil

  • Small floating sea creatures

START BY…

Taking the lid off of your bottle and filling your bottle up half way with cold water.

Person pouring water into a bottle

NEXT YOU…

Add some of the blue food colouring to give it that ocean colour. Be careful not to add too much as you don't want to make the water too dark.

Person pouring blue food colouring into the bottle

THEN…

Fit your funnel into the bottle neck and carefully fill up the rest of your bottle using the oil. Here's the cool bit: the oil won't mix with the water and instead, will rest on top of it!

Person using funnel for bottle

AFTER THAT..

Now for the (extra) fun part: start to add your sea creatures. Whether they're mermaids, stars for starfish or whatever else you can find. They should come up to the surface and sit on the oil.

Person putting plastic bug in bottle

ALMOST THERE…

Put your lid back on and make sure it's super secure, then give your bottle a good shake.

Person shaking the bottle

INTERESTING FACT

Oil and water don't mix and that's how you can keep your sea creatures afloat. Seeing how the elements react to each other is a great opportunity to share some sciencey wisdom.