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Naomi,
try to let the children tell you the science behind the experiments. In that way they are verifying that their understanding matches the real world.
In the case of the empty bottle and the full bottle hitting the ground, they both experience a force of gravity that is proportional to their mass – so the empty bottle has a smaller pull of gravity, but because it is lighter, it needs less to fall at the same rate.
The full bottle has a bigger mass, so a larger pull of gravity on it, but it needs that larger pull to get it to the same acceleration.
A slight difference may occur with the slowing force of the air on them – if they are the same size bottle then that force will be the same, and for the less full bottle that will affect it more.
Much more straightforward to start the exploration with two objects that are the same mass and have different shapes – in this case the air resistance force makes the biggest difference to how they fall.