Thursday, March 1, 2012

DIY: Discovery Bottle (Part 2) and Gel Board

Chasing Cheerios is a great resource of wonderful activities to do with your kids. Be sure to head over there and check her blog out! Her blog actually inspired us TWICE in the last week! First, I LOVED her Starry Night jar. Many people use these glitter/snow globe jars as calm down jars in place of time outs. They have their children sit and watch the glitter fall and once it reaches the bottom the child can get up and continue on with their day. I wanted to make one for a couple reasons. One, I loved that hers was a Starry Night jar and we could relate it to art and Van Gogh through the colors in it. And, I wanted to make another discovery bottle for my son (I have a plan for a few more liquid discovery bottles but just haven't had time this week).
I used a hot glue gun to seal the cap so my son couldn't get it open. :-)
All you need is glitter glue, glitter, clear Elmer's glue, and warm water. Mix all of these together in the bottle and shake. I shook often over several minutes to make sure all the glue dissolved well. If the glue doesn't dissolve (this is why you use warm water), I believe your glitter will get clumpy. I didn't measure anything out. Just sort of estimated the amounts. Glue is used to make the liquid a little thicker. This way the glitter takes time to fall to the bottom instead of just falling quickly after the bottle is shaken. My girls liked this so much they each wanted to make their own bottles. So we now have a sunset looking bottle in purple/gold and a magenta/purple bottle.

Then, I came across Chasing Cheerios' gel board idea linked from Dollar Store Mom. I thought my girls would LOVE this idea! And it's so great that it can be a gel board on one side and a dry erase board on the back. This project actually took me quite a bit longer to make (about 25 minutes each) than I thought it would. Here is what you will need:
When we need to mix glitter glue into something, I used our Lakeshore Learning Confetti Glitter Glue. It is a little more liquid-y and the kids love the confetti in it.
You will need about 5 oz. of hair gel (this took a bit of trial and error on my part to figure out the amount). I bought hair gel at Dollar Tree. Mix the hair gel with glitter glue, glitter, and food coloring. Carefully move the air bubbles up toward the top of the ziploc bag. Open the bag and gently force the air out. Use fun patterned duct tape (I found ours at Michael's) to attach the bag to a piece of foam core cut to the size of the ziploc bag. I made ours in gallon-size, but you could use quart-size to make them smaller and more portable (for restaurants or other places you may need something quiet to entertain your kids). If you want the back of the gel board to be a dry erase board, just add a piece of contact paper to the back side of the foam core before taping the gel bag. This was the part that took me a bit longer than I thought it would. I had a tough time getting the contact paper on straight with no bubbles or creases in it.

EDITED TO ADD: After playing with these for a couple days, I have two more suggestions to make them even better. I might use two pieces of foam core next time to make it a bit thicker and stronger. All our boards have bends in them already which isn't so pretty for the dry erase side of the board. The ziploc bags also have some crease marks and slight scratches in them. No holes for the gel to escape yet, but it made me nervous. So I added another piece of contact paper to the top for more protection. This step would be easier to do before the board was finished and squishy with the gel. I would suggest putting a piece of contact paper on the bag before filling it.
These can be used to practice writing letters or spelling words. Also great for just doodling with your finger or for kids that might need a sensory activity. Just pushing the gel/glitter around can be relaxing. Here are our boards in action:
 
 
 
 

15 comments:

  1. Just curious, this post all of sudden got a bunch of page views. Did someone link to it? Just curious why it all of sudden jumped up. :-) It's fun to see how people find my blog. Thanks!!!

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  2. I followed a link on Pintrest. Don't you use Google Annalytics? I shows referring sites and other statistics for your blog. You can activitate it in your dashboard.

    Fun idea! I plan on making a bunch of these for my students.

    Heather
    http://www.thehelpfulcounselor.blogspot.com

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  3. Thanks Heather! I do have the statistics activated on my blog. It just seemed unreal that all of sudden I got so much traffic from Pinterest pins. Just wondered if it had been posted somewhere else. Gotta love Pinterest! ;-)

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  4. I found through printest too! Thanks my kids will love this! I'll link to my blog wen I do

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  5. Hi!

    I have two questions. I'm making this gel board for my VERY active, adventurous and curious two year old. I'm afraid that he will tear the ziploc bag ... but you suggested using contact paper. Can you purchase contact paper in clear? (And would you suggest cover the FRONT of the bag in contact paper?). I wasn't quite sure from your update. :)

    Secondly, do you need to add the glitter glue specifically ~ or do you think it would work to add clear Elmers (or no glue at all)?

    Thanks!

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  6. Hi!

    I believe I got my contact paper either from Amazon or Discount School Supply. It is clear. Since I didn't think to put the contact paper on beforehand, I just added it over the top of the finished board. I would suggest putting the contact paper on the ziploc bag BEFORE you put the duct tape on. Then your little one can't pull up the contact paper. And if you want the back to be a dry erase board, add the contact paper on the back of the foam core as well.

    I only added the glitter glue because the kind I had contained fun confetti glitter pieces in it. I will say, I think it worked better to add glitter glue versus just regular glitter from a shaker container. The regular glitter kind of clumped together. If you don't want glitter in it at all, just use the hair gel and food coloring. You wouldn't need glue at all then.

    Good luck! Hope it works out well for you!

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  7. I have to agree with everything in this post. Thanks for the useful information.
    http://www.diydiscovery.com

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  8. I found you on pinterest as well. I think the mini version of these will be PERFECT for traveling!!!

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  9. I just joined Pinterest, and was blessed to find this site! Halellujah! What a FANTASTIC idea. You can bet that I'll be high-tailing it to the dollar store as soon as possible tomorrow to get the needed ingredients. Thanks so much for keeping this blog going... I know with little ones, it can be tough. My kids are 5, 2, and 2.... the oldest is all right, but the twins... oh my.

    Preschool next year, preschool next year, preschool next year... *sigh* As soon as I hear something about my job, the kids will be able to start daycare. I called today and she's going to get back to me asap.

    Thanks again!!!!!

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  10. I did something similar to this for my babies at work but I never thought of using the foam board (what a great idea!). Instead I used card board cut down to the size of the ziplock bag with a piece of what paper behind it. For filling I used water beads colored with food coloring. I bought the beads at the Dollar Store. The babies love moving then around with their fingers. I haven't covered the ziplock bag with anything and we've yet to have a hole.

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  11. Wonder if you think if it would work to use clear plastic that you buy at a fabric store and stick to other material? Thinking the plastic might be sturdier than the contact paper.

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  12. I found the link to this on Pinterest- love the idea! Did you use a mini dry erase board, or just the contact paper? Just curious. Thanks! Im sure my kids are going to love it!

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    1. Hi Sarah! Thanks for stopping by! I just used contact paper over the foam core piece. BUT, another I idea that just came to me is that you could use chalkboard contact paper! Then they could use chalk or chalk markers! Also a fun idea! ;-) But, a tip on the chalkboard contact paper. I'm not sure what the logic is, but you have to "season" the paper first. Just cover the whole area with chalk and wipe away and it will be ready to go. Have fun! Our last a couple years. My daughter has been begging me to make her a new one.

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  13. This is a great idea for 2014 Vacation Bible School "Handprint Entry" for Agency D3!

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    1. What a creative use for the gel board! I LOVE it!

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