So far we haven’t completed many activities that focus on developing my son’s hand muscles. He can find it difficult to squeeze the hand brakes on his bike or squeeze the water out of a sponge in the bath. For the second letter in our A to Z of Fine Motor Series, we created a Bead Balloon for Hand Strengthening.
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I tipped water beads into a small bottle so they covered the bottom. I then poured in water to fill two-thirds of the bottle. I left the water beads soaking overnight.
The next morning the water beads had soaked up all the water and had expanded in size. With hindsight, I used too many water beads. When I opened up the bottle the water beads burst free from the container. As there was not enough space for the water beads to grow as big as they usually do.
However, this worked to our advantage too. As the water beads were smaller they were more firm and didn’t break as easily.
I placed a white balloon over the top of the bottles mouth. I tipped the bottle upside and squeezed. This motion transferred the water beads from the bottle into the balloon. Once the balloon was full of water beads I removed the balloon from the bottle and tied a knot. I repeated the same procedure with another balloon to create two water bead balloons. I then gave them to my son to explore.
He was fascinated by the bead balloons. As soon as he squeezed the balloon it would make the water beads pop out so their shape and colours were visible. He spent ages rolling, squishing, squeezing and even attempted to squash the balloons. He loved rolling the balloons underneath his feet too. It created a wonderful texture.
Despite lots of rough play the balloons retained their shape. My son certainly tried hard to break the balloon and didn’t succeed. It will be interesting to see what will happen to the balloons over time. Usually the water beads will dehydrate and shrink in size.
Our Bead Balloons certainly worked on strengthening my sons hand muscles and the exercise was a lot of fun.
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During a difficult pregnancy suffering from Hyperemesis Gravidarum (HG) Emma vowed to make every day an adventure once she had recovered. Adventures of Adam is the outcome of completing a 100 day play challenge with Adam as part of that promise. Emma has a section dedicated to HG friendly play activities so that Mums can still be part of their children’s play whilst they are ill.
I just discovered your excellent web page.
As an Educator I thank you for the outstanding advice you are providing.
In fact I will now try the hard strength
suggestions you have provided for my
acute hand injuries. Your focus on
Kinesthetic Learning Modalities is just superb. Thank You So Much
What kind of ballons did you use? I AM THINKING OF DOING THIS FOR MY 8 YEAR OLD.
Any middle sized round balloon will do!
Where did you buy the water beads??
Are you in the States? You can order them online on Amazon: http://amzn.to/2nGZaM6
Would it be easier to fill the balloons with dry water beads first and then add water and tie off the balloon? This way the beads would expand while in the balloon.
Love this activity. I too have two children in care that could use more activities to strengthen their hand muscles. I think they would love to play with these as well.