Water Gems Sensory Fun

After seeing this awesome idea on I Can Teach My Child, I couldn't wait to do something similar with my class. Our theme was Colors last week and on Friday we discussed the colors blue and purple. So I brought in a big bucket of purple water gems.

I found them at Michaels by the vases. I saved a lot of money by buying the kind you need to add water to. On Thursday night I dumped them into a container and added the appropriate amount of water. They had to soak for several hours, but when they were done I was so happy with the results! Not only was the color beautiful, but the amount of beads I had was so much more than I imagined! I was worried that I should have gotten two bags, but one bag was plenty. (And it was way more than when you buy the pre-made ones. I probably would've had to buy about 5 or 6 containers of those to get the same amount!) I strained the water out and rinsed the beads to make sure they wouldn't stain. The water looked like grape juice! When I got to work on Friday, I hid small animals in the tub.

I pushed them down so you couldn't see them at all. Then I made little cards with pictures of the animals that I hid. I just drew them quickly by hand, nothing fancy. The kids took turns picking a card and they had to find the animal that was on the card. It was so fun! And they loved playing in it.

And so did my husband! OK, and so did I!