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Giant Water Beads – Amazing Sensory Activity!

by Angela Thayer 25 Comments

Have you ever stumbled across something and just had to share it with everyone around you? That’s how I feel about water beads! I tell all my friends with kids about using water beads for an amazing sensory play activity. They even are enjoyable for me to play with! We’ve been playing with small water beads for years, but I just discovered Giant Water Beads!! These are fantastic and I can’t wait to share all about them with you!
Giant Water Beads - awesome sensory play activity!

These beads are amazing to play with! They are just as fun as they look!! They are squishy, soft, silky, bouncy, and smooth. Yes, this is a super fun play activity, but it’s also great for learning.

Giant Water Beads Are Great for Teaching…

  • sensory attributes – teach little ones what squishy feels like!
  • colors – practice naming colors as you play!
  • cause and effect – as your child explores, they’ll notice if they drop the ball, it will bounce! Or if you throw it hard, it will break a part.
  • social interaction skills – if you play with these in a group or with a sibling, children learn how to share and play together. Sounds simple, but activities like this is a great way to practice sharing and working together.

Giant Water Beads

This post contains affiliate links. See my disclosure for details.

You’re probably wondering HOW to make these awesome beads. Well, all you need for this activity are large water beads and water. I have not found these in the store yet, only on Amazon.

Growing Water Beads

When you’re ready to make the beads, simply place the small beads into a container full of water. In the picture above, you’ll see small water beads mixed with large ones. This is what they look like when you begin the growing process. In about 30 hours, your water beads will enlarge to their fullest size!

Giant Water Beads

Don’t these look so inviting to play with?!

holding giant water beads

I love that these giant water beads are not something that could fit inside of a child’s mouth. (If you have a child that likes to put items in his or her mouth, you know what I mean!) HOWEVER, these do break a part if you bounce them too hard or squeeze them too hard, so I do not recommend using these beads with children who put items in their mouths. These are not edible! And as always, supervise your children as they play.

giant water beads holding

We also added a lot of small water beads to our bin and had lots of fun with both sizes! These water beads lead to HOURS of play for my kids.

colorful water beads

We scoop them, swirl our hands around, fill up buckets and dump them, smash some with toy hammers, sort them by colors, play with them in shaving cream, and more! We also discovered that if you hold a clear bead close to the colorful bin, it looks really neat!

clear-bead

happy-boy

bin of water beads

When you’re all done playing, you can let the water beads sit out until they dry out and shrivel back to their beginning size. Then you can store them in a bag until you’re ready to make water beads again! I love that these are reusable!

Giant Water Beads - awesome sensory play activity!

If you haven’t tried giant water beads, you MUST try it! In my opinion, it’s the perfect sensory play activity for children! Let me know how you liked it!


Related Posts

  • 10 Ways to Play with Water Beads10 Ways to Play with Water Beads
  • Water Beads for Valentine’s DayWater Beads for Valentine’s Day
  • Safe Water Beads for ToddlersSafe Water Beads for Toddlers
  • Fine Motor Skills with Water BeadsFine Motor Skills with Water Beads
  • Toddler Tuesday: Water Beads & Golf TeesToddler Tuesday: Water Beads & Golf Tees
  • Slow-Falling Beads Sensory BottleSlow-Falling Beads Sensory Bottle

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Filed Under: Fun Kid Activities, Sensory Play, Toddlers Tagged With: invitation to play, sensory play

Comments

  1. Tacy Long says
    September 26, 2016 at 8:38 pm

    Do you have a link to the small water beads you used as well? This looks like a lot of fun to play with! I especially like that you said they’re reusable!

    Reply
    • Angela Thayer says
      September 28, 2016 at 2:50 am

      Sure! These are the small beads we used: (affiliate) http://amzn.to/2cAgcCB

      Reply
  2. Waleed marwat says
    September 27, 2016 at 2:36 pm

    Can you plz tell me so i could get the same size of this ball, as mine are much smaller in size then yours.

    Reply
    • Angela Thayer says
      September 28, 2016 at 2:51 am

      Sure! The big size water beads are found here: (affiliate) http://amzn.to/2de9Prn

      Reply
  3. Kerry says
    September 27, 2016 at 4:40 pm

    Gutted not available in the UK!!!

    Reply
    • Angela Thayer says
      September 28, 2016 at 2:51 am

      Oh bummer! I’m sorry.

      Reply
    • Mel says
      December 3, 2016 at 7:52 pm

      Try this Kerry…giant water beads on Amazon Uk
      https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B01G7B760C/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=APAUB73P0WORJ

      Also girls for an edible option you can pour liquid gelatine mixed with gel food colouring into water bomb balloons that are turned inside out!

      https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=KdbAv_6CyVc

      Reply
    • MOMcStuffins says
      June 21, 2018 at 10:57 pm

      You can order them from Aliexpress

      Reply
  4. Me says
    September 28, 2016 at 9:08 pm

    Do you know if there is any latex in these? I have a student with a latex allergy.
    Thanks

    Reply
    • Angela Thayer says
      September 30, 2016 at 2:49 am

      According to wikipedia, and the ingredients in water beads are mostly water and polyacrylamide. Hope that helps!

      Reply
  5. Muriel Gerber says
    September 29, 2016 at 11:04 am

    Hi
    How do we go about to order these water beads.
    Please let me know

    Thanking you

    Reply
    • Angela Thayer says
      September 30, 2016 at 2:44 am

      You can order them here: http://amzn.to/2cFAP04

      Reply
  6. Erin says
    September 30, 2016 at 2:01 am

    This looks like so much fun. How do you contain the mess though? Play outside? If we miss a few playing inside, do they leak onto the floor when shriveling up or do they evaporate?

    Reply
    • Angela Thayer says
      September 30, 2016 at 2:43 am

      I either do them outside or put a tablecloth underneath our play area. Yes, if they lay on the floor or outside for a day or two, they do shrivel up. Then you can reuse them. Hope that helps!

      Reply
  7. Heather Earley says
    October 17, 2016 at 2:03 am

    We have played a lot with the little ones….these are AWESOME!!! I highly recommend placing a handful in a bottle and setting a timer for 30 minutes when you add the water. My 2-year old was obsessed with observing the changes in the beads and had all sorts of nifty observations. I can’t wait to do the same thing with the large beads! Great find!

    Reply
    • Angela Thayer says
      October 17, 2016 at 2:17 am

      That is such a wonderful idea!! Love it!

      Reply
  8. Heidi says
    November 8, 2016 at 2:57 am

    How do I store water beads to use later on?

    Reply
    • Angela Thayer says
      November 11, 2016 at 7:35 pm

      You can store them in a sealed plastic bag or in a closed container.

      Reply
  9. Kristy says
    February 17, 2017 at 1:00 pm

    It takes 30 hours for them to get to their big size?

    Reply
    • Angela Thayer says
      February 20, 2017 at 3:30 am

      Yes it does. It’s fun to watch it grow!

      Reply
  10. Lorraine says
    April 9, 2017 at 4:06 pm

    Very adventurous . I love to spend time doing this one with my nieces.

    Reply
  11. Reggie says
    September 28, 2017 at 4:50 am

    All my kids LOVE water beads! Even the ten-year-old asks to play with them. We store ours in an air-tight plastic container between playtimes. Love that they can be reused, it makes them a VERY cost effective play item considering the use they see!

    Reply
    • Angela Thayer says
      September 28, 2017 at 4:02 pm

      Awesome! They are so calming to play with. Thanks for sharing!

      Reply
  12. Grace says
    June 11, 2019 at 11:33 pm

    How do you go about cleaning up after this? Do you chase every bead that left the bin? We love water beads but I’m constantly going after every bead they drop out.

    Reply
    • Angela Thayer says
      June 17, 2019 at 5:58 am

      That is frustrating! I put a giant towel down to help the beads not roll so much. Then when we’re done, I just pick the towel up and either place the water beads back in the bin or in the trash. Or we do this outside.

      Reply

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