Tag: water beads

Rainbow Water Bead Sensory Bags

Leave a comment

If your kids love water beads but you hate the mess, consider these eye-catching sensory bags. Kids still get the look and squishy tactile fun, without the risk of all those beads skittering across the floor!

To set up, it helps to buy a rainbow pack of water beads where each color comes separately; I promise that you don’t want to try to sorting water beads once saturated.

I filled a zip-top bag with about 1 tablespoon of each bead color, then added water so they could soak overnight. If you notice the beads have absorbed all the water, just add a bit more.

In the morning, the bags were full! I dumped out about half the beads from each to make room, then added a little extra water and tinted it with the appropriate color of food coloring. Seal tightly (it helps to add a strip of duct tape for extra security!) and hand over to your tots.

These are great lying flat on the ground so Veronika could see the beads. She loved that she could push the beads through the water inside with her fingers.

But she also loved picking them up and tossing them! Having the full rainbow is great for teaching ROYGBIV order of course, as well as visually gorgeous.

For all that effort to seal the beads up, she did still want to play with some beads out of the bag. So I poured the extras into a wide bin. Pretty soon, toys were swimming through, and big brother Travis needed to join the fun. Luckily, not too many went skittering away!

Halloween Countdown Day 13: Monster Sensory Tub

Leave a comment

Monster Sensory Tub (1)

This activity doubled as the day’s sensory play and a way to tick off a box on our countdown to Halloween. And it couldn’t have been easier!

I filled a tub with purple water beads and water so the beads could grow to full size. The kids were so impatient to play, though, that I handed over the bin when the beads were only half as big as they could eventually get. To add spooky monsters, all we needed were large wiggle eyes.

Monster Sensory Tub (2)

At first the eyes were floating on the surface. But Travis loved burying them as deep under the water beads as he could, and then unearthing the “monsters”.

Monster Sensory Tub (4)

They were so eerie swimming to the surface. Veronika jumped right in to copy him!

Monster Sensory Tub (5)

She also loved scooping up handfuls of the water beads and then letting them trickle back down.

Monster Sensory Tub (6)

Before I knew it, the game changed slightly. Star Wars Stormtroopers needed to escape from the monsters!

Monster Sensory Tub (9)

This kept the kids so busy and happy the entire time I was prepping dinner. A definite spooky win.

Monster Sensory Tub (8)

Water Beads Sensory Bin for Boats

Leave a comment

Water Bead Boats (1)

How had I possibly forgotten about water beads? They’re one of the greatest ways to keep a toddler busy plus engage them in sensory play, but I literally had forgotten they exist. Well, a friend happened to remind me, and it was high time for Veronika to get her first experience with this awesome material.

If you’re not familiar with water beads, they start out the size of about a mustard seed, but expand overnight into marble-sized squishy balls. Look for them in the floral section of craft stores. As with all small, round objects, supervise play closely to avoid choking.

I soaked the water beads in a bin and then in the morning we added… boats! I thought the maritime theme would be perfect for summer.

Water Bead Boats (2)

Veronika loved that she could sail the boats through the beads. She also loved loading the beads into one boat and then pouring them into another.

Water Bead Boats (4)

At first our bin didn’t exactly look like an ocean since I had all the colors of the rainbow. I started to separate out just the blues and greens. It was starting to look a bit more like the Atlantic…

Water Bead Boats (5)

I didn’t finish the task, though, because then Veronika wanted the cup I was filling with the non-ocean colors so she could practice her pouring and scooping.

Water Bead Boats (6)

She then started carrying some of the beads around in the cups, at which point I had to direct her back to the bin. Because yes, the one problem with water beads is that they get real messy if you let them escape!

Water Bead Boats (3)

Foot Sensory Bins

2 Comments

Foot Bins (1)

Why should hands have all the fun? We set up bins today to see how things felt with our feet instead!

For your mise en place, set out 3 separate bins. I used one each of: shaving cream, water beads, and sand. You can make your sand wet or dry, or start with it dry and then gradually add a little water.

Travis wanted to hop in the water beads first, which he declared very cool.

Foot Bins (2)

Quite quickly he was ready to see how the sand felt. It only took a moment before he requested we add some water beads to the sand, and he mixed it all together with his toes for a while.

Foot Bins (4)

He was very hesitant about the shaving cream, but I got him to sit on a stool and we dipped his feet in, after which he decided he liked how creamy it felt. Then he declared we needed water beads in here too.

Foot Bins (6)

When you’re done, dump any trash out and then rinse your buckets in the tub – which is half of the fun anyway!

Foot Bins (7)

Water Bead Sensory Play

Leave a comment

water-bead-3

I never knew water beads existed until this game, but I’m so glad we discovered them. The soft, squishy beads – which are intended for use in planters, and are available at craft stores – start out the size of tiny pearls and expand in water. From there, the ideas for play are almost endless. You’ll definitely want to play this game with a child who is past the stage of putting items in their mouth.

Part of the fun was the magic of watching the beads expand. Before bed, Travis helped me dump the packet of beads into water, and we watched them inflate a bit – quite quickly in fact. In the morning, even I was surprised how large they had grown!

 

water-bead-2

Travis was so excited that he couldn’t even wait until after breakfast. I gave him a small dish of the beads to stir through while he dined.

water-bead-4

Then it was time to really play! I drained off the excess water and transferred the beads to a large bin where Travis could have at them – with a shovel, with a rake, and with our hands. Adults, jump in there! The soft squishy beads feel almost therapeutic.

water-bead-6

One of our favorite ways to play was to shovel them into an ice cube tray.

water-bead-7

Later in the day, we decided to add a batch of red beads, which we’d been watching expand all morning. Travis loved the way the colors mixed, since the pink and blue began to look purple once stirred together. We even hid Duplo people under the beads for him to uncover.

water-bead-8

Full disclosure: your child will probably discover that the beads bounce and roll. I let Travis experiment with this capability in a contained environment so that the beads didn’t become a health hazard to our cat. So do be sure to supervise water bead play closely, no matter your child’s age.