My son is obsessed with the moon & the sky. I knew the second this book was released that it would be a popular one in our house! Luckily the perfect craft pairing came right to my head! A swirly blend of glitter and sequins in a DIY calming star jar was fun to make, and has given us lots of entertainment gazing at our starry “sky.” Added bonus? It’s been a great way for my emotional/dramatic son to collect his thoughts and handle his emotions. #winning!
What You’ll Need
Clear bottle with label removed (a little warm water and olive oil do the trick!)- 1 bottle of glitter glue
(pick a fun color!)
- 1 bottle of clear glue
- fine glitter
in complementing colors
- Star confetti
(different colors, sizes if wanted)
- Glass bowl for mixing
- Hot glue gun
- HOT water
(pick a fun color!)
in complementing colors
(different colors, sizes if wanted)
Time for the FUN!
We have a learning tower that sits next to our kitchen island. This makes the perfect (contained) spot for doing crafts with twin toddlers. The last thing I want is a kid escaping with glitter. The last time I used glitter for crafting, it got in every crevice of the house like only glitter can. I’m not supposed to let it in the house again… shhhhhh!
Fill your bottle about 3/4 of the way with water, then pour into a pan to heat up to almost a boil. This will help the glue “melt” easier. Remind toddlers that “HOT” and “DON’T TOUCH THE BOWL” are important phrases for this project. When you use a glass bowl to mix it in, be careful those little hands don’t escape to the bowl edges or dipped inside to play.
Here comes some fun! Let those crazy kids squeeze the whole bottle of glitter glue into the bowl with your hot water. You’ll probably have to help, especially with the bottom of the bottle. Give them a whisk (all your baking practice pays off here), and have them carefully mix the glue and water to melt. Let them pick some glitter to dump in the bowl. I suggest the adult do the glitter dumping here to avoid the previous troubles I mentioned with glitter.
We added big pink or blue stars and smaller iridescent stars to the mix as well. I let them work on some fine motor control by picking up these tiny sequins and releasing them into our glue mixture. We talked about what stars are & how excited I was to show them our special new book when we were finished!
As you stir the mixture, you’ll notice that the glitter starts to settle when you stop. If you would like your glitter to fall slower, dump in more clear glue! If you want you glitter to fall faster, add a little water instead. Once you have the consistency you like, you are ready to pour into your bottle and hot glue that cap on. If your toddlers are like mine, you would have the biggest glitter mess of all time without the hot glue. Use the hot glue.
Let’s Read!
While our hot glue dried, we had a snack and read What Are Stars? This is the third book in a series of lift-the-flap very first question and answer book. We love it for toddlers since they are simple, big flaps and are full of discovery. A few fun facts we learned…
- There are billions & billions of stars… more than grains of sand at the beach!
- The SUN is the nearest star!
- Blue giant stars are the hottest!
- Shooting stars are actually speeding lumps of space rock!
I hope you enjoy learning about the sky & creating a fun project to go along with it! If you loved this book as much as I did, you can purchase What Are Stars? here. Enjoy your DIY calming star jar!
Happy Reading!
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