When she poured the tiny little beads into the water we discussed what we thought would happen. My daughter had no idea since she’s never seen them before. It takes 4 to 6 hours for the beads to absorb all of the water. I can’t tell you how much fun we had all afternoon. We made a plan to observe the beads every hour. It got a little confusing because every time we went to just observe we ended up playing with them for at least 20 minutes, all three of us had so much fun.
We discussed absorption and even a little bit about how rain clouds are formed with evaporations from the earth. I highly recommend doing this for an afternoon of complete FUN!
I think it’s really important to point out that we should all try to engage our children’s sensory skills after school. There are lots of ways to do with through playdough, finger paint, sand play, beading, water play, coloring, cooking, music and many more things.
It gives their body time to reconnect with itself after a busy day at school and build new connections.
There are all sorts of ideas for using water beads with your children. Here are our favorites…
- Water Bead Science from Nurture Store
- Water Bead Math on Kids Activities Blog
- Printable Water Bead Activity from Creekside Learning
- Water Bead Party on Fit Kids Clubhouse
- The Wonders of Water Beads on Train Up a Child
Thanks for sharing your afterschool week with us. Can’t wait to see what you’ve been up to. Hope many of you had a great first week back to school. I think our third week hit us the hardest with getting back into the routine of things and why we spent a lot of time playing with water beads, she just needed to be just a 6 year old kid after spending all day at school in a desk.
This looks like fun! I love the toys you added. It's fun having AfterSchool back in swing!
What a wonderful activity! I'm now following you from the After School hop.
Fun! We just got a little science kit that has these beads in it so I'm glad to have some ideas on what to do with them!
I love all the learning you built into water bead play!
I'm so glad everyone's back and ready to join in the AfterSchool fun. I've missed seeing everyone's creative ideas with their children. Off to go make your delicious ice cream Bombe treat you shared this week with my Daughter.
Thanks! I know both your kids will love them too, truthfully I had a lot of fun with it too. They feel really neat and are interesting to observe as they absorb the water.
Thanks MaryAnne… isn't that what AfterSchool is all about! Play with Purpose 🙂 So glad to hear that your 3 had a good first week at school and that you got some one on one time with the baby. Really excited AfterSchool is back!
I've always wanted to try those water beads. I've never bought them and have always wondered what their environmental impact was. All I could find out was that they are made out of polymers, but that doesn't tell me much. They look like so much fun, though!
Thanks for making me think about our environmental impact. I looked it up and found this site which stated that they Water-Gel Crystals is a polymer gel powder and is non-toxic, ecologically neutral, it breaks down after its useful working life to water, carbon dioxide (CO2) and nitrogen. It stated that they can even be placed into your soil and will breakdown. Here's the site http://waterbeads.net/?page_id=39
Thanks Christina for joining us this week. Loved your post about learning chess with big brother. One of my son's favorite games as a kid with her dad. Hope you'll join us next week too.
This is great! Shows how water beads can be used in so many different kinds of play. Thanks for linking up on our water bead page, we'll be sharing this on our FB page and pinning it to our Water bead board.
Oh, thank you so much for that information! We will have to try them now!
Thanks Liz. I can't wait to explore more water bead activities with my kids.
We have yet to explore water beads either. I love all that you did with them. Thanks for sharing at the Sunday Showcase! 🙂
How fun that these blue water beads generated hours of free play. Your daughter has a great imagination!