Icy Water Bead Cubes Make a Fun Arctic Sensory Bin

Recently, while wandering past the water beads, I found water cubes. I thought the different shape was interesting, and I was sure we could find something to do with them.

With it being winter, the logical thing to me was to freeze some of them into ice cubes.  Not to drink though; just to add some winter fun to a sensory bin.

Prior to hydrating.

And halfway hydrated.

And fully hydrated.

Then I set a few of them on a waxed paper lined cookie sheet and froze them.  My hope was for them no to become a huge glob of ice cubes!

I placed the frozen cubes in one side on my bin and the non-frozen ones on the other side.  

I went looking for penguins or polar bears to add, but all I came up with was one penguin.  So I suppose this was really an Antarctic sensory bin. 

The number of animals didn't really matter as the girls were more entertained by the difference between the frozen and non-frozen cubes. 

They spread the frozen cubes out to make them look like iceberg and added a little penguin which they promptly removed. I do think this little penguin toob would work great with it. Really little polar bears or seals would be fun additions too. 

Then we waited and observed them as they thawed too. 

I guess I didn't really think about what would happen to a frozen water bead. Surprisingly, it turned to mush. I guess freezing disrupts the molecules enough that they no longer hold their shape. 

Eventually they thawed completely and were clear again.  Somehow my camera missed that!  It was pretty interesting to have the mush along with the whole cubes though. So as long as you don't want beads (or cubes) anymore try freezing them for a new sensory experience!