Water beads!

 WATER BEADS!!!

You may have heard about the water beads we have explored in our class. We started off by showing the class a bowl of the beads. We asked them what they thought they were?

Some said they thought they were for crafts.

Someone said we could put them in the marble centre.

Some suggested we could make bracelets or necklaces with them.

Someone said we should put them in hot water and borax. (like our snowflake experiment)

Then we gave the class a clue. We told them they were called water beads!

So they immediately knew that we had to put them in water. Everyone agreed that they thought they would grow.

 As a class we decided to put the green beads in cold water and the yellow beads in hot water. And then we watched. It didn't take long for those tiny beads to start growing before our eyes! We had our magnifying glasses out and watch them change.

 This is a picture after about 30 mins in water. The beads had already soaked up all the water. We added more water!

 Then Mrs McAteer decided to add a third colour of beads. We put the turquoise beads in warm water. (This is how they look before putting them in water)

 We noticed that the beads in hot water grew faster than the beads in the cold water!

Here you can see the difference. From smallest to biggest.

 After the beads had all grown. We put them in our water table and got to play with them! Since it was St-Patrick's day on Monday we added some lucky coins to the bin.

We played with the beads for a few days and made sure they stayed in a little water. Then since many of the beads had been squished by little hands, we decided to set them out to dry. Well They had completely returned to their regular little dry bead size over the weekend!

Next we will see if we can grow them again!

We would also like to put them in hot water and borax like Dylan suggested and see what happens.

***If you are interested in buying some for at home (as many of the children asked where I bought them). You can get them at Walmart either in the fake flower section. (They are made to add to a vase with flowers.) OR in the toy section, they are called Orbeez. I believe you get more for less $ in the flower section.  You can also find them at Michaels and they sell them in a larger format! (like a large marble)