Ready for a super simple ocean themed excavation activity that is a real crowd pleaser? The ocean orbeez excavation activity is an awesome sensory experience that will have your excavating adventurers diving into a magical "ocean" of colorful orbeez with hidden ocean themed treasures inside.
Check out this super quick video tutorial or read on for more detailed instructions.
Materials:
- Orbeez (water beads)
- Bucket or mixing bowl
- Little plastic ocean animals
- A tube or tray - Optional: An empty smooth sided two liter bottle with the label removed and top cut off. You want the bottle to be as tall as possible because your excavating adventurer will be reaching through the orbeez to recover treasures from the bottom of the bottle.
- Optional - Blue food coloring if using clear orbeez.
- Bottle or pitcher of water.
- Strainer
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Instructions:
- Fill the bucket three quarters of the way full with water.
- Optional - add a drop or two of blue food coloring. You do not need a lot of food coloring and too much will stain hands and arms once the excavating begins.
- Add orbeez and wait until they have fully grown. Read the orbeez directions for an estimate of how long this will take (plan on an hour at the minimum). You will also need to judge how many orbeez to add. You are trying to fill the tube, tray, or two liter bottle as much as possible.
- Once the orbeez have fully grown, pour off all the excess water by dumping the orbeez through the strainer.
- Put the orbeez in the tub, tray, or plastic bottle.
- Now reach down through the orbeez and place the plastic ocean animals at different locations. The orbeez will hide the animals from site.
Pro tip: Get a mixed bag of shells and add these instead of the little plastic ocean animals to your ocean orbeez excavation!
Now the ocean orbeez excavation is ready to be enjoyed. Find an area that is easy to clean up and let the excavating begin. Encourage the excavating adventurer to reach down into the orbeez and discover the hidden ocean animals.
Pro tip: Use clear orbeez and remove all the water. Fill the two liter bottle with the orbeez and hide ocean animals at different levels. The animals will be hidden. Now use the pitcher to add water back into the two liter bottle. This will seemingly magically allow the ocean animals to appear and is a really cool effect!
I hope you enjoyed this super quick tutorial and enjoyed making an ocean orbeez excavation. These excavations are very easy to make and a lot of fun!
Pro tip: Use this activity to create some excitement around discussions or lessons regarding oceans, beaches, tidal pools, seashells, and marine animals.
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Happy Excavating!
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