Waterbeads are a firm favourite with my kids and we are
always looking for new ways to use them in our activities. Our favourites so
far have been our “Pretend Baking” and “Witches Bubbling Brew” messy play
activities. I have been trying to think of a way to incorporate
waterbeads into one of our arts and crafts projects for a while now and this
week I decided to try out an idea I’d had. So I embarked on an experimental
painting session with Bella one morning whilst the boys were busy in school. We
painted some Valentines love hearts using waterbeads, paint and then added in
some shaving foam. This turned out to be a very lively activity and maybe a
little messier than I was expecting, but Bella found it all absolutely
hilarious so it was all (just about) worth it!
and we set to work. The first thing we tried, after securing the heart into the
centre of a deep tray using masking tape, was to add in a few splodges of paint
and a handful of waterbeads over the paper heart. I then encouraged Bella to
lift the tray and swirl the waterbeads around in the paint and the result
was…paint covered waterbeads all over the table and floor! I had grossly
underestimated the power Bella had to swirl them around the tray. I can see the
funny side of it now looking back at this short video, but I wasn’t as happy
when the activity was taking place.
added some waterbeads to a bowl along with a splodge of pink paint and Bella
mixed this all together until the waterbeads were nicely coated in the paint.
She then spooned them into the tray over another taped down heart. This time
she swirled them around using a paintbrush. There were still a few escapees,
but nothing like the carnage of our first attempt.
some shaving foam fun as well. Waterbeads and shaving foam are a fab
combination, so we loaded up our tray again. This time with a layer of shaving
foam and then Bella spooned in some of the paint covered waterbeads. Bella got
stuck in with her hands and then she pressed a heart shaped piece of paper down
onto the tray to print a lovely swirly pattern onto it.
had to get her hands and arms fully submerged into the mixture. She then did
some lovely foamy handprints onto another heart to finish of the activity.
warm water to clean up all of the paint and shaving foam that she was covered
in. This provide a lovely extension to the activity, which gave me chance to
pick up all of the waterbead escapees from the floor and wipe down the table
around her.
We have joined up with a whole host of other fabulous kids arts and crafts bloggers to share our favourite Valentine’s Day crafts and activities with you all. Please take a look through the links below and pop over to each of them to read and pin some more great Valenine’s Day ideas.
Preschool Fun: Painting and Lacing Hearts from Bare Feet on the Dashboard
Simple Heart and Kisses Valentine Card from Witty Hoots
Paper Heart Bunting from Peakle Pie
Sensory Valentine’s Day Hearts Guessing Game from Mama Smiles
Wax Resist Valentine Cards from The Gingerbread House
Heart Cracker Crisps from Betsy’s Photography
Valentine’s Day Blessing Activity from Betsy’s Photography
Valentine Sensory Soup from Learning and Exploring Through Play
Salt Dough Hand Keepsake from Learning and Exploring Through Play
Heart Sensory Bag from Learning and Exploring Through Play
Salt Dough Heart Candle Holder from Messy Little Monster
Sensory Friendly Valentines from Mosswood Connections
Paper Weight Rock Valentine’s Day Gifts from Teach Me Mommy
Paper Bag Tea Cups from KidPep
Ten Fun Valentine Ideas for Tots from My Bright Firefly
Valentine’s Heart Mobile from Must Love Waffles
Lovely idea, it looks pretty too. Shaving foam is always lots of fun.
#TuesdayTutorials
Shaving foam is great and the best thing is it is really easy to clean up afterwards!
My kids will love this! It look so fun! They also love the messy with shaving foam! Thank you for sharing it with us #pintorials
It's great for messy play isn't it! We go through a lot of cans of it!
Grace says – I would love this. Looks super fun. We'd love for you to link this to our #minicreations linky which opened today http://www.kidglloves.com/mini-creations-wednesday-21st-january-2015/ #MMWBH
Thanks Grace! I came over to your linky but linked up our Love bugs as i though you might like them as well?
Aww looks so much fun and messy which made it more fun =P
I dont have any Vday projects yet but I would want to do something for this occasion too! #pocolo
Yay! What a very creative and fun way of painting. I love all your fantastic crafts ideas…will keep checking you out! xx
What a fantastic idea! I wish I had known about water beads when Grace was small. Thank you for linking to #PoCoLo x
Sounds like some great fun! I'm sharing this fun.
Sounds like some great fun! I'm sharing this fun.