Fun with Waterbeads

At our town's founders' day (a town festival) there was a waterbead vendor. Instead of doing sand art, we let Hazel get a container of waterbeads. It was set up literally like a sand art area where she could fill the container with whatever colors she wanted. After getting it the container just sat for weeks filled in my house. Then after doing our apple/nature prints, we pulled it out. Well actually we started with our very dry clear ones that I bought at the Dollar Store and left out for months. We added water and watched them grow. Then we pulled out the colored ones. Hazel wanted to sort them. We gathered bowls and cups for the sorting. I also gave her scoops and tongs to see what would be easiest.

After trying the tongs, she decided her hands worked much better. She got them all sorted by color. They have been doing sorting at school, so this was an extension of her class in many ways.

Once they were all sorted she had fun mixing color combinations. Then it was time to go run and play in the yard.

Have you played with waterbeads yet? They remind me of peeled grapes. I remember going to and creating "haunted houses" in elementary school and there was always a bowl of peeled grapes that you put your hand in and were told it was eyeballs. Waterbeads always make me think of this. Though I do have to admit, waterbeads is much easier to get out than peeling grapes. What do they remind you of?