Glowing water bead increased attention & coordination

Playing in the dark is so much fun with a UV light & some glowing water beads.

A few people have mention before that these type of activities would be great for kids who have a fear of the dark, it may help them be at ease in the dark and come to enjoy it.

 

You can make water beads UV reactive by getting some clear, yellow or light coloured water beads in their dehydrated form & soaking them over night in glow water (highlighter ink infused water). It's pretty simple. Get some highlighters, a uv light & you can do lots of fun things. Check out my Glow tab above for some more ideas.

 

The best part about glowing UV play is that no matter how messy it gets, and no matter how many glowing artifacts get scrambled across the floor the UV light picks them up. They're so easy to see, so you wont be finding hidden water beads crushed into the carpet for the following week lol.

 

This was a simple activity that I set out in the hope that Dimples could practise a steady hand, patience, perseverance, focus & bilateral coordination. I had some clear cups of different sizes, different shape tweezers and small spoons in a tray with glowing water beads, a UV light and a ice tray. It did look very inviting, as expected.

This was a fun, bright activity where Dimples got some good practise in bilateral coordination. By setting out the cups on one side, the tweezers/cups on the other and by giving him the spoon to one particular hand he got some good practise in using both hands steadily and reaching across the body slowly, coordinating his reach and movements to carefully spoon the water beads into the cups or across the ice tray.

Scooping with spoons is something simple but also very complex with glow in the dark water beads as they slip and slide unless you have a steady hand and they're quite difficult to scoop up unless you manoeuvre the spoon around or trap them against a edge or corner.

 

Not only do you need to focus your visual coordination in the dark but the water beads are slimy little suckers and they bounce and skim away at any movement so you need to work hard at task to succeed. Handling them must be with a slow stead scoop and its serious business, otherwise they bounce and scatter in all different directions.

 

You get the drift.

Lots of fun that helps develop concentration, focus, coordination and fine motor skills.

The ice tray worked really well, the more he filled up an ice cube - the more it glowed. Dimples experimented with scooping, pouring and tweezing (which was extremely difficult) water beads into the sections if the ice tray one at a time. The tweezers weren't really a success, it was way too difficult to secure a water bead, most likely they hit a sharp edge and crushed but if you had some of those plastic kids play tweezers that are semi-rounded on the end it would work well and provide a great fine motor task to master.

Dimples then poured them all out and try again!

Pouring from different size clear cups and back, experimenting with the volume and size of cups. 

Experimenting with the angle of the ice tray while pouring water beads from it and watching each section.  Filling cups up with the small spoon and the large with the opposite hand, leaning across the body and keeping a slow steady focus. It all looks so fun but Dimples was working on some very important tasks as he played.

Learning Concepts:
Bilateral Coordination
Focused attention
Patience and slow, steady movements
Transferring
Fine motor skills
Volume & Size
Sensory Play

Ideas for Extension:
Make water beads into Glowing Dragon Eggs
Make a small world with them for some pretend/Imaginative play
Add some glowing spaghetti for more of a messy sensory experience.
Add some measuring cups & funnels for a math approach
or some PVC pipes to experiment with transference
If your brave do it in a tub of glow water

Happy Adventures

Glowing Radioactive Slime

This is the coolest thing we've done in a while!

After a chat with my friend Kate from laughing kids learn about glow play & UV lights, I was inspired to start glowing experiments with Dimples because its been a while since our last glow play (Glowing Dragon Eggs) and it just happened that I had a jar of glow water but wasn't sure what to use it on.

Something different!

Slime... 

I wanted to make a slime that worked both ways because not every one has a UV light globe handy. So this slime is great for all occasions; it looks a little like gak through the day. 

Keep it in the fridge and its shivery cold to touch. 

 

Works well with a potato mash, funnels and grates that the slime can ooze through. Fill up a cup and watch it flatten,  fill up a funnel and watch it slowly descend.

 

Turn on the UV light and its radioactive, it glows vibrant & bright! Add some bright white googly eyes and it gives it a crazy spooky look under the UV light. If you haven't got a UV light I highly recommend it, it makes everything look so much brighter and definitely puts the GLOW in glowing play. 

Turn out all the lights and it still glows.

A subtle mystical glow, very intriguing and just as slimy. 

 

Making slime is a great lesson in chemistry (for school age children) it shows how substances react, mix, how liquids can become semi-solid. How borax dissolves, how it glows & scientific exploration regarding how substances move, sink and gravity. 

This is a Great sensory activity, especially if you store your slime in a zip lock bag in the fridge between play. It will not only feel smooth, look slimy but be shivery cold and have a clean gak kind of smell. 

How to make Glowing Radioactive Shivery Slime. 

You need Elmer's glue or Pva glue mixed with water at a ratio of 1 cup glue to 3/4 cup water.

If you have a UV light- use glow water or glow paint (highlighter ink infused water or UV/Fluro paint).

or if you want it to glow in the dark add glow in the dark paint.

If you would like it coloured add food colour here.

Or do all three if you want it to be radioactive green, UV and night glowing slime. Like our is. 

Mix well with a whisk or fork in a bowl and keep separate for a moment.

In another bowl dissolve a table spoon of borax in half a cup of hot water. 

Mix the two together in a zip lock bag and pop it in the fridge if you want it to be shivery cold slime. 

 

Have fun.

 

Learning concepts:

Science/chemistry

Measurement

Mixing

Gravity

Sensory exploration

Experimenting

Extension: 

Cutting the snotty gak - scissor practice

Experiment with different colour

Use clear glue vs white glue

What else can you make glow?

Other textured slime - Monster gellatine Slime

 

Happy Adventures



Glowing dragon Eggs by the Hulk

The story of the Glowing Magical Baby Dragon Eggs made by my Baby Hulk.

As you may have noticed I have been doing a bit of experimenting with glowing play for Dimples to explore. We started with glow baths and bath paint made from shaving cream and highlighter ink. We have made Glowing playdoh, substituting the water with glow water, and I made some glow spaghetti yesterday. This time we made some glowing water beads.

Through this experimenting I have found that yellow and green Neon highlighters work the best.

We made the water beads by using hydrated ones and soaking them for 18 hours in glow water (highlighter ink & water). It has been done before in the blogging world, but for us it was new & it was a success. We did Clear beads in yellow ink, green beads in green ink and some Orange in orange highlighter ink (the ones that aren't as vibrant are the orange ones).

We put them in a tray and used a bit of the glow water mixed in a zip lock bag with some shaving cream.  Dimples then poured this in over the beads and mixed it into a big glowing mass of fun.

Using some clear containers with lids he filled them up and shook them round so the entire container was a glowing tube. He experimented with site perception, shaking it quickly and watching the blurred trail in the dark. (We had an almost pitch black room).

He discovered after a while that he was also glowing, his hands and finger nails were glowing under the black light. He told me this meant he had turned into a monster!  The green Hulk Monster.

Hulk Alert, Dimples has turned into a glowing Hulk :) 

Or is he radioactive?

The radioactive glowing Dimples did some pretend cooking. He Made me some magic berries but then suddenly they were magic baby dragon eggs.  So he went with this for a while, helping to "hatch" baby dragons out of the magic glowing eggs, telling me what colour each one was. I love his imagination!

He had lots of fun filling up jars and cups then shaking them around and holding them towards the light, then hiding them so they weren't glowing but mostly he enjoyed crushing them into oblivion and making a huge slushy mess.

If you have missed our glowing Adventures, click on the Glowing Fun Tab under my header for more ideas.

If you have never tried using black light play, start here glowing-bath-play where you will find a link for how to make & use it :)

First you will need a Black light globe that you can get from your local hardward or lighting store. You can purchase fandango ones online that are enclosed but they are costly, we got our Black light globe for $13 and use it in a lamp with the ahde taken off. While in the Bath, I replace the globe on the ceiling light and it works just as good :)

Happy Adventures

Glowing Spaghetti

Glowing Spaghetti Messy Play in the Dark Fun Under the Black light.

I have been wondering whether spaghetti would work if I attempted to make it glow, Just as we do with glow water (Highlighter Ink & Water), Glow Paint (UV/Neon Paint) & Bath glow Foam (shaving cream & highlighter Ink).

So I thought, theres nothing to lose, I will attempt it & if it fails.... Well its just a bit of spaghetti.

I combined 2 methods: I cooked the Spaghetti in glow water, as I thought most of the water retention would be in this process. Then I put the cooked spaghetti in a zip lock bag, with a bad of neon green paint, a little more glow water and a drop of oil. I left it soak for a hour or so and...........

IT WORKED. Success!

Dimples had a ball with his mini tractors and dump trucks digging around in the glowing spaghetti under the black light. He mushed it around, made piles, scooped it up into the trucks and made tracks through it. He even put his hands in and buried them under the "glowing worms".

Through our experiments with glow water, I have found that Neon Green and Yellow highlighters always work best. This may look green, because I added some fluro neon paint but the glow water I used was ink from a yellow highlighter.
Dimples loved this type of play and was very inquisitive with the spaghetti, threading it through his fingers and exploring it by holding it up to the black light, then hiding it behind the box so it stopped glowing.

If you have missed our glowing Adventures, click on the Glowing Fun Tab under my header for my ideas.

If you have never tried using black light play, start here glowing-bath-play where you will find a link for how to make & use it :)

First you will need a Black light globe that you can get from your local hardward or lighting store. You can purchase fandango ones online that are enclosed but they are costly, we got our Black light globe for $13 and use it in a lamp with the ahde taken off. While in the Bath, I replace the globe on the ceiling light and it works just as good :)

Glowing Sensory Glitter Bin

Using my newly found play essential, a UV black light globe, I put this super cool sensory bin together for Dimples and he literally sat and played for an hour in the dark.
If you have missed it we have done glow play with experimental glowing-vinegar- & with Glow water bath-play

I kept my mind open and looked for anything that glows in the dark or that was neon or fluorescent to put in the sensory bin and this is what I came up with.

Neon Play dough
Neon glitter dust
Glow sticks
Neon straws
Glow in the dark Plastic stars
Fluro pom poms
Fluro pipe cleaners
Fluro hair elastics
Fluro highlighters on white paper

Before: Flash on - UV light off

After: Flash off - UV light on

 Under the black light the neon/fluro play dough looked awesome, Dimples played around making caterpillars and bugs with the pipe cleaners and cut straws.

He threaded some of the pipe cleaner through the cut straws and then sprinkled the glitter everywhere. We were sitting in a dark room with a large mirror and he was laughing at the glitter on his finger tips. It was a crack up- Something good about the UV light, you REALLY see where all the mess goes, that normally you would not notice (like thousands of minuscule glitter dust specks).

Then he brushed by his face and looked in the mirror. Yep, he was covered in glow in the dark specks. Then he laughed & seen his teeth,  "Look at my teeth Mummy" they were glowing under the light as well.

 

He done some scribbling on white paper with the fluro highlighters and traced around some stars and then started with the glitter again.  He covered the play dough and filled some star shapes up.

After managing to sprinkle out all the glitter into the box I started to pack away some of the other bits so he had more room for the glitter.
Have you ever seen sand on a light box? Well the neon glitter under the UV light is by far much more interesting, bright and appealing but with the same affect.

Dimples used his fingers to draw in the glitter, do prints and so on, all the glitter glowed under the light and where ever he traced his finger, swished the pipe cleaners or pressed the play dough it was dark.

You must try it - Go on you know the kids (and you) will love it!!
Happy Adventures

Glowing Vinegar Experiment

After reading a really interesting & fun post over at growingajeweledrose.com about glow water, we have been experimenting a little with lots of glow fun.  I was easily persuaded to buy a black light in the post by growing a jeweled rose, I found one at the local hardware shop for $13- It is a black light globe that I put in a lamp and it is officially one of the most coolest ways to experiment with play.  If you dont have one GET ONE! You wont regret it...  Something you may not know, tonic water even glows!

Basically, the black light makes anything Neon or white glow in the dark. In the above post you will find how to make glow water, it is just neon texter or highlighter texter ink with water. So you crack open your pen and use the ink cylinder, soak it in your water and voila. that is your glow water.

We did a glow bath and some glow paints with shaving cream in the bath and then I used the highlighter ink and mixed it in vinegar for some Science fun in the dark. I used 3 disposable cups filled with orange, pink and green glow vinegar and had 3 smaller container with bicarb soda and some droppers.

Dimples was in awe as he walked into the dark room and everything was glowing. He could not wait to get in to it. The orange & pink worked great, they were so vibrant!
He started with the dropper watching small amounts of the vinegar fizz and bubble away but he couldn't help him self, the affect wasn't good enough. He poured some in and watched the explosion of bubbles come pouring over the top and onto the tray, now the entire tray was glowing and fizzing away.

He put his head down and listened to the bubbles and pops as it fizzed, then he realised the smell was funny & had to smell them all. The experimented with mixing different colours and then pouring the vinegar soaked bicarb onto the tray. It was good fun. He ended up using his finger to draw around on the tray & mix all the bicarb in.