Different holidays and seasons around the year are always a great excuse to get involved in some themed Sensory play. With Valentines day approaching, we made this simple Valentines Sensory Snow Globe. It’s like a cross between a snow globe and a sensory calm down jar, and you can make it in only a few minutes.
To make this Valentines Sensory Snow Globe you will need:
- 1 Small jar – we used a sweets jar, but jam jars of any size will also work
- Red or pink water beads (UK/ US)
- Water
- Glitter
- Glue gun to seal the lid (optional, depending on jar)
If you haven’t tried water beads in a sensory bottle or jar, you need to give it a try! They are so pretty and pictures really don’t do it justice. We made some water bead sensory bottles before and for the Valentines theme here, we stuck to red for a Valentines colour scheme and added the glitter, which gave the snow globe effect.
To make this Valentines snow globe with the water beads, first put your water beads inside the jar and add water to let them hydrate. When you take them out of the packet they will be tiny little hard beads but soon after introducing them to water, they will become the round squishy water beads that you want for this jar.
The jar we used, which you can see in the picture, is pretty small so we used just 1 half of the little packets (once you open the packet, the other dry water beads will keep just fine in the open packet until you need them) but if you have a larger jam jar you would probably want to use the whole pack. It’s not really an exact science as to how many you need, and you want enough space for the water beads to float around within the water.
After the water beads have hydrated fully, add a generous shake of glitter, and mix it throughout the water then close the lid tightly and you’re ready to go with your Valentines snow globe. If you feel like your lid is not tight enough and that the water may leak when shaking the snow globe, then seal it around the rim with a hot glue gun.
Now you’re ready to start shaking your snow globe! Watch the glitter flurry up like snow, and then slowly settle back down. It’s very calming and pretty to watch.
The light shines through the water beads, and they look like little red hearts floating around – so pretty, especially when held up towards the window.
You can change the colours to mix this up for different times of year, and use different shaped sequins or sparkles rather than plain glitter to get a different effect. For these snow globes, we used very fine glitter and it moves around beautifully in the water.
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Valentines Themed Sensory Activities
Anna Marikar, mum of four and seasoned blogger, has spent over a decade sharing her parenting journey and passion for kid-friendly crafts and free printables.
Her easy-to-follow craft ideas and practical parenting advice have transformed In The Playroom into a cherished resource for parents.
All children like snow globes so this is such a lovely idea, I’ve never thought of using jars before x
It looks really lovely with the water beads and glitter, really simple and effective, and definitely quite romantic 🙂