How to Make Homemade Super Sand (Cheap & Easy!)

First a secret. We’re going to use salt instead of sand to make our super easy, super cheap super sand.

Yeah, I know. We’re rule breakers. It’s the way we roll. It’s also the way kids learn best–by playing with the ‘rules’ or ‘instructions’ and making things their own way.

Hang on… here we go!

Super Sand Instructions

You’ll need a pile of salt. And a bunch of food colouring. Also a spoon and a plastic bag. One bag per colour.

That’s right. We’re measuring with care like we’re sending a shuttle to the moon.

All righty. Space-folks. For every tablespoon of salt you will need about 1-2 drops of food colouring. The brighter the colour, the more food colouring. Funny how that works.

Mix colours. Go wild.

Oh, but first, take the salt out of the shaker and dump it into the plastic bag. Add food colouring. Stir with a spoon, or simply shake the bag. (Make sure you close it first.)

Let it dry for a day or two.

Now for the fun part.

Eat it.

Play with it.

Run it between your fingers and say “ooooooh… ahhhhhh.”

Arrange it in a container.

In the above photo, coloured salt (super sand!) was layered into the baby jar–right up to the top! Then with a toothpick, my daughter poked the sand making the cool downward bits.

When you are satisfied with the look, screw the lid on the jar and tie or glue ribbon around the top to make it look lovely and glam!

OR: Make a picture! Spread glue on a piece of paper or thin cardboard. Apply different coloured super sand to different parts of the glue to make a picture. Lovely! Shall we frame it?

You know what? I think this would make a lovely homemade gift or birthday party favour. What do you say?

Have you made super sand? What are your recipe secrets? What do you like to do with it?

Want to shout about it? Tweet this: I found a super easy, super cheap, super sand recipe for my kids!

If you are in Canada you may be crying gently into your cookies and milk over the END of the penny.

That’s right, the last minted Canadian penny rolled off the thingamagig months ago. How old do you feel now, right? You are a generation that USED pennies. Dear Lord.

Anyway, if your kids are anything like me and my kids, they’re going to enjoy cleaning change. I don’t know what it is, but cleaning pennies and making them sparkle is fun! Especially if you get all scientific–then you feel grown up, smart, and cool as well!

Here’s what you need to know about cleaning pennies

First, copper reacts to oxygen forming copper oxide. That’s the stuff that makes pennies less bright and shiny.

Until 1997, the Canadian penny was almost entirely copper! That means lots of copper oxide. But–more recent pennies still have a copper plating so you still get copper oxide forming on them. Whew. (More on that in the post that will magically appear here in a few days.)

And, um. Yeah. I guess that’s about it unless we are going to go all super technical sciencey. And I don’t usually do that. On to the next step.

Cleaning Pennies: The How-To

1. Grab some pennies from Grandpa’s coin jar.
2. Grab 1/4 cup of vinegar and toss it in… well, just leave it in the measuring cup.
3. Sprinkle 1 tsp salt into the vinegar.
4. Stir.
5. Drop a pile of pennies in the solution.
6. Swish.
7. Wait a minute or however long your kids’ attention spans are.
8. Rinse and dry the pennies.
9. Compare them to some dirty pennies. Can you see the difference? Cool, eh?

So that’s an easy way of cleaning pennies. There are other methods as well. Have you tried them? What do you think? A penny for your thoughts in the comment section. (Yes, I just dated myself with that expression. <sob!>) .

If you liked this post, spread the word:

The Canadian penny is no longer being made: a simple science experiment to clean them up. (& US pennies) http://t.co/6UXMhCSQ

— Jean Oram (@KidsPlay) September 8, 2012

Here are a few fun things she did (and learned about) with soap, food colouring, and water:

Which makes more bubbles?: Liquid hand soap or liquid dish soap?

Does warm water make a difference when trying to get bubbles?

Can you get more bubbles if you mix with a fork instead of a stir stick?

What about mixing food colouring? What colours can you make? Can you make a colour lighter? How do you do it?

What happens to the bubbles? Will they still match the water’s colour?

What happens when you add food colouring to bubbles?

Obviously play is one of the coolest ways to discover new things as I had no clue you could make something as cool as a flower using food colour in bubbles! And without play, we wouldn’t have discovered this (coloured bubble flowers!):

How about you? Have you and your kids just played for the heck of it lately? Here’s your chance. Grab some food colouring (and maybe a smock of sorts), water, liquid soap, a jar, or glass, and something to stir with. See if you can make bubble rain clouds, and more!

Enjoy!

This activity is not only  fun, it’ll teach your kids about mixing colours, and all sorts of science.

Cook some elbow noodles or spaghetti noodles and let them cool. Place your feet in them and wiggle your toes. Doesn’t that feel cool?

Make this a family activity: Get everyone to try it.

This activity promotes sensory exploration.

To make a BIG volcano, you will need:

– 250mL (1 cup) Vinegar
– 60 mL (4 tbsp) Baking Soda
– Red food coloring—about 4 drops (optional)
– Dish Detergent—about 6 drops
– jar or bottle (This will be your volcano. Or a volcano can be made from clay or paper maché.)
– stir stick that reaches the bottom of your volcano (a long straw works)
– tray to put under the volcano to catch the lava

In your jar or bottle, pour in your baking soda and dish detergent. Mix your food colouring and vinegar. Pour the coloured vinegar into the volcano (jar/bottle) and give it a slight stir.

Look out! It’s a bubbly eruption! There’s lava everywhere! Save the people!

If you are using a smaller bottle like mine in the video, use half the ingredients.

Enjoy!

Make this a family activity: Work together to make your volcano erupt.

This activity promotes the knowledge of chemical reactions.