Exploring Water Beads

So...fascinated with what we've been seeing on some of our favourite blogs, we decided to give water beads a try today in our tactile table.

Water beads are small, plastic pellets that expand with water and are used in floral arrangements.

Water beads need to soak for about 4 hours in water - as they soak up the water they expand and become much larger. We showed the children the water beads and asked them to predict what would happen when the beads were placed in the water. We had some interesting predictions. 

"They will change colour."

"They will change shape."

"They will turn into something else."

"They will melt."

The children enjoyed playing with the beads as they soaked in the tub.

Once expanded the beads were placed in our sensory table for the children to enjoy. They are so soft, slippery, and squishy and it was interesting to listen to the children describe them to each other  and play with just the beads and no other tools.