This morning was another morning of reading Star Wars books for Thomas followed by watching our newest DVD – Lego Star Wars The Empire Strikes Out. I have to admit, its a good DVD!
Jasmine was busy writing. She added more items to her Christmas list. I probably shouldn’t encourage her to keep thinking about more and more things she wants for Christmas , but it does get her writing and I like that!
This afternoon we went to visit our friends, Caterpillar Tales, again. In preparation for an afternoon of messy play they had set up their Tuff Spot with oats, Shreddies and farm animals. My kids loved it (both playing with it and eating it!) It started off indoors, but as it was so lovely outside (and my boys were getting quite, um, enthusiastic shall we say!), we moved outdoors.
Of course, as soon as we moved outdoors the boys lost interest in the farm play. But they found water to play with instead!
After another lovely afternoon playing outdoors, we came home and had a quick play with some water beads before dinner.
The water beads only arrived with us this morning and I had only prepared one small bag as a test, but we’ve never used them before so the kids were all enthralled with them. We had been looking at them throughout the day and watching them grow and grow from tiny little beads to marble sized balls.
I gave the kids a small bowl each, and the first thing Thomas said was that they looked like molecules! He demonstrated molecules in a solid, by filling the bowl so full that the water beads couldn’t move, then he took some out so the remaining beads could move a little and told me he’d made it a liquid! Honestly, my kids never fail to amaze me!
They got some Octonauts toys out and played with them in their bowls for a bit, they asked for containers so they could pour the beads and Thomas spent a lot of time counting his. Whilst they were playing I spent a bit of time on google looking for other ideas on water bead play and found this post, which includes an excellent fine motor practice game using water beads and a duplo base board. I showed the kids and they were keen to have a go themselves. Thomas lined all his beads up, Ben scattered his around and Jasmine drew a picture with hers!
I know we are going to have fun with our water beads and I have lots of ideas of things we can do with them. Tomorrow however I am hoping to use an idea that Jasmine had and make a beach scene using some of the moon sand we have left and some water beads as the sea. I’m fairly certain I’ll have to set this scene up twice though; one scene for Jasmine to play with and one for the boys. Its a good job I have plenty of large trays!
3 Kids and a Gluestick 
I’m so glad you found the waterbeads post useful! We adore them and use them so often for all sorts! I love seeing how your three do different things with the same materials. So exciting seeing personal identities coming out in play, isn’t it!
[…] The children played with the farm scene nicely for a while, and then a few of them decided it would be more fun to throw the oats. So we moved the Tuff Spot outside! This meant that the children spread out a bit and found other things to do. They decided to fill up the play sink with water, and then inevitably decided to add some oats. They made a lovely mess and it kept them busy all afternoon. You can read another version of events here. […]