Friday, October 29, 2010

Jelly Volcano Balloons

This activity was serious fun, both girls got really involved - and sticky :-D It was a great sensory play experience; there was the feel of the jelly, the fun of watching it 'explode' as well as the taste and smell.

WE USED:

* balloons (washed in warm soapy water and rinsed)
* jelly (2 packs)
* fridge
* scissors
* large container
* kitchen utensils for play

First we washed our balloons thoroughly, rinsing them well.

Then Bubble and I made some jelly using two packs of crystals and only adding a small amount of hot water to dissolve (about a cup). It was very thick and syrupy which is what we needed.

I filled each of our balloons with some of the concentrated jelly solution using a funnel, then filled them the rest of the way with water from the kitchen tap (cover the tap with the top of the balloon like you would fill a water bomb). The balloons were then tied off and left in the fridge for a day to set.
I had no idea if I'd added enough or too much water to make them set, but figured they'd be fun to play with whether the jelly was firm or watery!

Today we took our jelly balloons outside along with some scissors and things from the kitchen.

When the tops of the balloons were cut off they literally exploded jelly out the top - Bubble was very excited and thought they were volcanos :-)
All the balloons were different consistencies which was even more fun - the watery ones exploded the best when cut and the firmer ones were lots of fun to squeeze.



Bubble enjoyed cutting the balloons herself.



Once all of the balloons were 'erupted' we played with the jelly doing pretend cooking, whisking, filling and pouring and of course tasting :-D

Using ladels to fill cups.

Squeak was fascinated and inspected the jelly very closely for a long time. She ran her fingers back and forth and kept holding handfuls up to the light.


There was lots of squishing.

And plenty of eating too :-)

4 comments:

  1. I've never seen this activity before. You post a lot of neat things on this blog. It looks like your daughters had a great time! I've linked up to your post on my blog:
    http://play2grow.blogspot.com/2010/10/weekly-favorites-october-31-2010.html
    I also linked up to your ice bowling activity as well!

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  2. Thankyou Darcy, going over to check out your Blog now :-) Before having my own kids I was working with children with disabilities and as part of my job I had to create sensory play activities, so Im lucky to have those ideas now to use with my own girls. Im glad you found some activities you liked!

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  3. I'm going to try this one too!

    Your blog is PACKED with great ideas - I'm your newest follower and I think I'll be coming here when I'm all out of ideas...

    Thanks for sharing.

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  4. Thanks for following Sarah, and for your lovely comments! It's so nice to know that people find the activities and ideas useful.
    I remember your beautiful button sorting photos from the Childhood 101 link up last week as I really enjoyed it, I'll be heading over to check out the rest of your posts tonight and have a good read (once I have peace and quiet and chocolate all to myself hehe :-D).

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