Ocean in a bottle

We talked about oceans last week around our house. We colored pictures, played with little ocean creatures, dug in the sand and read all sorts of books about oceans, beaches and sea creatures. To go along with the theme my niece came over and made oceans in a jar with me. She's been to several beaches lately and has brought back sand, shells, sand dollars and a starfish for my son. He loves starfish. We even found one at the dollar store that you soak in water and watch it grow bigger by the day. Anyway....back to the ocean discovery bottles. I remember making them when I was young and when I saw them in Family Fun Magazine this month and on Bobbi's blog (love how glittery hers were) I thought they'd be perfect for our weekly theme. We used Smart Water bottles since they are small but perfectly flat without any grooves. We added water, food coloring, baby oil, sand and shells. If I did them again, I'd add less food coloring as our shells and sand are a little hard to see. I even found a tiny star fish to throw in my son's and he loves shaking it up and then looking for his starfish. I then hotglued the lids on. I bought some small plastic sea creatures to put in each one but they didn't float (they were just pencil toppers) so we left them out.