Friday 30 August 2013

Calm down Jar

I came across this idea on Pinterest and have made a couple for the start of the new term.


There are loads of different webpages with these on; here is how I made mine.

Jars- didn't think that glass jam jars would really be suitable to give an angry/upset child so found some plastic ones on the web (300 ml seems a good size for little hands) which are "leakproof and unbreakable" ... we'll soon see.

Tried PVA glue- bad move as made the water opaque. So went for glitter glue (whole tube) some more glitter and some little beads and confetti (the type you get in a card shop made of plastic- not the wedding one HA!)

Then added a glug of glycerine (about 75 ml to the first jar which makes the glitter fall very slowly) and topped up with tap water right to the brim. Gave it a good shake and am pleased with the results.

Think I am going to superglue the lids on to be extra secure.

Plan is to use with children who are angry/upset...I have a couple of children starting with me next week who can find it difficult at times to calm down and this is something I haven't tried before. It certainly is very pretty when the glitter swirls around and it takes a few minutes to settle so not so long that it will become boring, but hopefully long enough to come down from seeing red.

Didn't have food colouring so used fountain pen ink which has given a more subtle colour. Not sure red would be a good choice!

Will blog once I have used them and share how they worked...



2 comments:

  1. This looks like a brilliant idea - I'm bookmarking this post just in case I need some for my new class. I've given you a shout-out from my blog!

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  2. Well, a half term in and it is just me who has used these so far! The children greeted them with suitable "ooohs!" and, "Ahhhhs!" but they haven't been used. With the forthcoming productions for the festive season I wonder if that will still be the case at the end of the term?
    Time will tell...

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