Last weekend, as I was planning for my son’s tractor-themed third birthday party, I came across an idea for a sensory tub using water beads.

I ran to Michael’s and found the beads. To my delight, they had several different colors, including blue! The wheels in my head started to turn…what if I made an ocean-themed sensory tub filled with the blue water beads and ocean animals?! I sent my daughter to find a Toob filled with seals, whales, dolphins and more. We purchased the items and headed next door to Bed, Bath and Beyond to find a plastic tub in which to put the beads. Mission accomplished.

On Monday morning I excitedly shared the sensory tub idea with the students. Together we measured and added a total of eight liters of water to the two bags of water beads. (The beads start out about the size of a pin head and grow to be the size of a marble!) I told the students that the beads would be close to fully grown by the time we returned from our field trip that day.

The beads took a little more time to swell to the marble-size I was hoping for, but when they did, the students were thrilled!

This sensory bin, in addition to the ocean-themed Playmobil set I added to Choice Time, have been very popular, as you can imagine! In fact, we are choosing Fair Sticks so that each student has a chance to explore the water beads.

Fun, fun, fun!