Edible Water Beads {Fun Sensory Play!}

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Edible water beads are so much fun and are great for sensory play! They are something that will literally entertain the kids for HOURS! We started out using traditional water beads, which the kids loved but they aren’t natural and with all the warnings about them, it just didn’t seem like a great idea to continue using them.

If you’re looking for a fun and safe alternative (and less messy – these don’t break apart when squeezed) – check this out!

The solution? Tapioca pearls! We bought a bag of quick-cooking, multi-colored tapioca pearls and they soon became our new favorite! See how we prepared them (super easy!) below.

We cooked them according to the directions on the packaging (very easy!), which basically involved putting the pearls in boiling water until they floated to the top (which took about 1-2 minutes), lowering the heat for a couple more minutes, and then using a slotted spoon to transfer them to a bowl of cool water. After about a minute we divided the beads up into separate bowls filled with about a cup of water and handed them to the kids with a few assorted toys.

What You’ll Need

To Prepare the Pearls:

1. Tapioca pearls
2. Cooking pot
3. Water
4. Slotted spoon

To Play with the Pearls:

1. Plastic tray (to contain the water and toys in the event of spills)
2. Bowl of water with tapioca pearls
3. Damp washcloth (for clean-up during and after play)
4. Ocean TOOB
5. In the Water Toob
6. Perler bead candle holder (from our easy DIY activity); optional, but the kids loved to pour the tapioca pearls and water in and see the water filter out through the holes.
7. Learning Resources fine motor tool set
8. Kid size ladle
9. Silicone cupcake liners

These are the items we used but feel free to use what you have around your home if you’d rather not purchase any additional items. We will say we do tend to use many of the same objects in many different activities so if you do purchase some or all of the items we suggested, you are likely to get a lot of use out of them.

What to Do

Once you have cooked your tapioca pearls, place them in a bowl of water (we used about a cup of water). You don’t need too much water, just enough to allow the beads to float around and not stick to each other. You can then set out the different objects you gathered for the kids to use along with the tapioca pearls and let them enjoy their invitation to play. You can give them some direction or just let them loose.

The kids loved scooping the beads out of the water!

This is a great tool from Learning Resources. It has small holes on the top and bottom that allows the water to drain out while keeping the edible water beads in.

They also enjoyed scooping the edible water beads.

Of course, if you’re going to scoop, you must pour!

Our silicone cupcake liners were great to pour the water beads into.

The kids also enjoyed playing with their ocean and water themed TOOB sets.

How did your kids enjoy this activity? Did you enjoy it? If you didn’t feel the beads, you must! They have a really great texture to them, especially when they’re in a bowl of water.

We’d love to see pictures of your little ones enjoying these edible water beads. Share with us on social media #theartkit.

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