Ghost Eyes Excavation: Using Water Beads for a Spooky Sensory Adventure
It's that time of the year where spooky things are everywhere. In traditional Excavating Adventures style, went wanted to contribute to the spookiness by providing an excavation tutorial that is sure to gross out the young excavating adventurer in your life. Now roll up your sleeves (literally) and get ready to learn the super quick and simple Ghost Eyes Excavation.
Excavating Adventures Pro Tip: Once you have finished enjoying your water beads, you can put them in your potted plants or garden. Water beads will hold moisture and help keep your plants watered!
Exploring STEM Education through Ghost Eye Excavation: Using Water Beads and Hidden Items as Themes for Lessons
Excavation activities are a fun way to engage kids in hands-on learning, and the Ghost Eye excavation with water beads is no exception! But did you know that there are educational benefits to this activity beyond just the fun of finding hidden treasures?
By hiding items in the water beads, you can create themes for lessons in science, math, language arts, and social studies. For example, you could hide plastic insects and use the activity to teach about entomology and the anatomy of insects. Or, you could hide small plastic bones and teach about human anatomy and the skeletal system.
But what makes this excavation activity with water beads so unique is the use of super absorbent polymers. These polymers are the key to the Ghost Eye phenomenon, where objects hidden in the water beads seem to disappear when the water is poured off. Super absorbent polymers are able to absorb and retain large amounts of water, sometimes up to 100 times their own weight!
In addition to being fun to play with, super absorbent polymers have many practical applications, including in agriculture, hygiene products, and even in spacecraft to absorb and recycle water. Teaching kids about these polymers and their properties can inspire curiosity and interest in science and engineering.
So next time you set up a Ghost Eyes Excavation with water beads, think about the educational opportunities and themes you can incorporate, and use it as a chance to teach kids about the amazing properties of super absorbent polymers.
Get Ready to Dig In: Creating Your Own Ghost Eyes Excavation with Water Beads
Now it's time to get ready to begin your very own ghost eyes excavation! In order to get started, you'll need a few materials: water beads, a large container or sensory bin, water, and small Halloween-themed toys or objects to hide inside the water beads.
Materials needed:
A pack of water beads. These are also known as Orbeez and SAP Spheres and can be easily found online.
An empty plastic pitcher or tall cylinder vessel that you can't see through. Make sure the opening in wide enough that your excavating adventurer can reach all the way to the bottom of the container.
Some items to "excavate" and discover that you will hide in the Ghost Eyes Excavation. Try some little plastic spiders, bugs, and insects. This will align our excavation items with the spooky theme and provide a great way to introduce an educational conversation or lesson about these awesome creatures.
Directions:
Estimate the amount of water beads needed to fill your container and add water. It may take up to several hours for the water beds to absorb the water and grow to their full size.
Once the water beads are grown, pour off any excess water.
Hide your insects, bugs, and other spooky items in the bottom of the container.
Turn off the lights for added spookiness and instruct your brave participant to roll up their sleeve. Now let them reach into the container and experience the "ghost eyes" as they feel around for the hidden excavation items. You're sure to hear some excited and strange reactions from your participant!
More Ghost Eye Excavation Fun: How to Create a Ghostly Illusion with Hidden Objects in Water Beads
To create an exciting excavation activity using water beads, start by hydrating the water beads according to the package instructions in a clear container.
Once the water beads have expanded, add small objects or toys inside the container and mix them with the water beads. As the water beads absorb the water, they will become transparent and the objects inside will seem to disappear. Be sure to pour off any excess water once the water beads have reached their absorption capacity.
This effect is due to the refraction and bending of light caused by the unique properties of water beads, which are made of a superabsorbent polymer that can hold up to 100 times their weight in water. It's a fun and engaging way to spark curiosity and exploration in children, as they dig through the beads to uncover the hidden treasures inside.
Spooky Surprise: Halloween-Themed Toys to Hide in Your Ghost Eye Water Bead Excavation Activity
Here are some Halloween-themed items that would be fun to hide in the water beads for the Ghost Eyes Excavation activity:
- Plastic spiders
- Fake eyeballs
- Miniature skulls
- Bat rings
- Glow-in-the-dark skeletons
- Plastic fangs
- Witch fingers
- Halloween erasers
- Skeleton keychains
- Plastic cockroaches
These spooky items will add an extra element of Halloween fun to the excavation activity!
If your child is a fan of the Ghost Eyes excavation activity, they'll love Excavating Adventures! This monthly subscription box provides a thrilling journey to mysterious fictional locations filled with unique specimens that can't be found in store-bought excavation kits.
With STEM-based science experiments and access to live sessions with Excavating Adventures guides, kids and students will have an incredible hands-on learning experience.
Plus, with 120 different specimens and trading cards to collect, each month brings new opportunities for discovery and excitement. Join Excavating Adventures today and let your child's inner adventurer roam free as they explore the wonders of the earth!
The Ghost Eyes Excavation is not only a fun activity to include in your spooky celebrations, it is a great way to introduce bugs, insects, and spiders into an educational lesson.
The conch’s main predators include loggerhead turtles, nurse sharks, other snail species, blue crabs, eagle rays, spiny lobsters, and other crustaceans.
