A water-based space activity is sure to be a hit with each of your students! Make sure you add it to your list of preschool sensory play activities. This glowing galaxy water activity is so much fun!!
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Related: Simple Sensory Activities
The preschool kiddos have been enjoying a space theme recently. Oh, who am I kidding? I’ve been enjoying it just as much! We just tried out a super fun water-based space activity, and it was a HIT (as was turning the lights on and off to observe the glow)! The children originally called it The Galaxy Universe Planet Marble Water Thing, but I made the executive decision to shorten it to Glowing Galaxy Water! It’s easier to say (and type)!
glowing water space activity for kids
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Materials
Large plastic bin
Clean, empty bottles (ours are from a recent imbibing of cream soda)
Twisty eye droppers
Marbles
Glow sticks
Liquid watercolors – we used black and glittery purple
Funnels
Related: Fun Science Experiment with Fizzy Stars
Prep
Add some water to a large plastic bin, then color it to look like outer space! We mixed glittery purple and black liquid watercolors to create ours.
Get the glow sticks a-glowin’ and add them to the water – they acted like shooting stars and provided some fun light to the water play. Next, add the “planets” to the universe! We grabbed a few handfuls of marbles and tossed them into the water.
Set the syringes, funnels, and bottle “rockets” out alongside the bin. Then step back and watch the fun. Even better, join right in! Plastic bottles would be a great alternative to glass if that’s a concern.
How the kids played
As always, I loved watching how the preschoolers played! There was a ton of water transfer into the glass bottle using the syringes. Tons of filling up and squirting the droppers, too, of course! Then water transferring between the glass bottles, with and without the droppers and the funnels.
The planets and glow sticks came into play next. Some of the kids liked listening to the marbles inside the glass bottles. Of course, we’d talked about the glass being fragile, so the children handled everything with care. A few of the children spent some time filling one of the bottles up with all of the marbles, then seeing how much water they could add on top of the marbles.
Related: Starry Night Glitter Art for Kids
It was cool to see little sparks of inspiration throughout the play time, too. Comments like, “Hey, I can put the funnel on top of the bottle and turn it upside down so the water comes out but the marbles stay in!” The kids look so happy and proud when they make a discovery like that.
There was a lot of marble “planet” counting and estimation, along with glow stick counting. I’m not sure what the final count was in terms of how many marbles can fit into a bottle with how many glow sticks. Maybe I’ll find out tomorrow, as I’ve promised this water play experience will be available for more days!
Do your kids have a favorite space activity? What about a water play activity they just love? I’d love to hear about (or see pictures of) fun space and water ideas over at Fun-A-Day’s Facebook page!
Check out these other water play ideas
Lego Water Bin | Mamas Like Me
Rose Petal Water Play | Frogs and Snails and Puppy Dog Tails
Dino-Basketball Water Sensory Play | And Next Comes L
Bird Bath Pretend Play | My Nearest and Dearest
And a big shout out to Heather of Crayon Box Chronicles for organizing this water play blog hop. Check out her Animal Washing Station for more water-based fun!
Done-for-You Preschool Resources
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Preschool Teacher 101 is excited to share with you some amazing lesson plans, activity packs, and much more! We offer a wide variety of themes that are frequently used in preschool classrooms, as well as some less common (but super interesting) themes. Click on the images below to learn more about space-themed product offerings.
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