Fun at Home with Kids

Catch a Star: Edible Glowing Gelatin Sensory Play

Wednesday, August 28, 2013

Gelatin is one of our favorite sensory materials over here.  We've done a baby sensory play with it, we've made it fizz like pop rocks, and we've frozen it.  So it was only natural that we'd make it glow.  :)


I originally tried this idea with floating ice stars, but they melted wayyyy too quickly.  So I went back to the drawing board and came up with these brightly glowing edible gelatin stars.  I was going to put them in a bin of water, but given X's penchant for getting INTO the sensory bins, I thought I might as well just make a pool in the bathtub and dump the stars in there.  I made the bath cooler than usual and the stars lasted quite some time.  S had a great time catching them.  They're slightly slippery in the water, so it takes a bit of doing to grab one.


Baby X loved grabbing for them, too, though he was much less successful in actually capturing them.


Here's S diving for another one!  As she'd catch them she'd smoosh them up in a big dramatic glowing star explosion.  Each smooshed star made the bath glow more and more brightly.


In the end, we just enjoyed a regular glowing bath.  X continues to be a big fan of the glowing activities.  :)

This post contains affiliate links for your convenience.

To make Glowing Gelatin you will need:

Silicone Star Mold (optional)

Before I go any further, let me clarify that while these are not going to hurt your kids if they get an accidental taste, you do not want to feed them the glowing gelatin.  This activity is designed for children who are mostly through mouthing, but maybe have an occasional slip-up.  :)

I think this activity would be just as fun with glowing gelatin cubes, etc, but we happened to have a silicone star mold and I was hooked on the idea of glowing stars.  Unflavored Knox Gelatin usually calls for 4 packets of gelatin to 4 cups of water - to make sure these would stand up to being soaked in water, I made them in a ratio of 1.5 packets to each cup of hot water.  I added half of one of Our Glowing Vitamins  for each cup of hot water - but my kiddos do not taste things anymore.  If you do have a taster, I would suggest adding a much smaller amount of the vitamin to be extra safe (and again, please don't let them sit there eating huge amounts of glowing gelatin!).  Once the gelatin has set in the fridge, if it's in a silicone mold, you'll need to loosen it.  I took a butter knife and ran it around all the edges and used it to gently push the gelatin away from the sides and bottom before popping it out - it may help to lightly oil the mold before pouring in the gelatin (I forgot to try that this time!).

This is part of a series on Glowing; other posts in the series include:


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All activities here are activities I feel are safe for my own children.  As your child's parents/guardians, you will need to decide what you feel is safe for your family.  I always encourage contacting your child's pediatrician for guidance if you are not sure about the safety/age appropriateness of an activity. All activities on this blog are intended to be performed with adult supervision.  Appropriate and reasonable caution should be used when activities call for the use of materials that could potentially be harmful, such as scissors, or items that could present a choking risk (small items), or a drowning risk (water activities), and with introducing a new food/ingredient to a child (allergies).  Observe caution and safety at all times.  The author and blog disclaim liability for any damage, mishap, or injury that may occur from engaging in any of these activities on this blog.

19 comments:

  1. May I ask what kind of blacklight you use? Is it a flashlight, a bulb, something else? I'm looking in to buying one but I have no idea! I've loved all this glow posts and I think it would be a great way to entertain my 4-year-old during the long winter days!

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    1. Of course, Emma! We have a 2 foot long GE blacklight. It's a totally enclosed light - the long bulb and the casing and whatnot. So an all-in-one if you will. Hope you guys enjoy the glowing as much as we have!!!

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  2. These. Are. GNARRRRLLLLSSS. I love them so! Great job, Mammaroo!

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  3. This are such fun! Kids love things that can glow in the dark.

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  4. So the glowing bit is the vitamin B tablets??? How does that work??? Is it the backlight that causes the vitamins to illuminate???
    So like to do this for my two little boys
    Love your ideas and creativity

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    1. Yep - the tablets we linked to dissolved in water! It's a fluorescent reaction - there's a lot of info at Wikipedia if you want to learn more about it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fluorescence
      Basically it's a way that ultraviolet (blacklight) reacts with the various vitamins. Pretty cool, right? Hope your boys love it! :)

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  5. We have a regular occurance in our house called tehe glow stick bath where I buy a bunch of glow sticks and other blinky submersible things and put my twins in the tub. It's a really big hit every time (and an exceptional way to distract them when they are getting a bit on edge)

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    1. Yes! That is a ton of fun too. We love doing that with the super cheap dollar packs of glow sticks from Michaels - they're totally the perfect size.

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  6. I'm the Editorial Assistant for Fun Family Crafts and I wanted to let you know that we have featured your project! You can see it here:

    http://funfamilycrafts.com/glowing-gelatin-sensory-play/

    If you have other kid-friendly crafts, we'd love it if you would submit them. If you would like to display a featured button on your site, you can grab one from the right side bar of your post above. Thanks for a fun idea!

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  7. This sounds like so much fun! How do you know if the vitamins glow or not? I live in Austria and can't get the ones you recommend, but I have no idea what to buy instead.

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    1. Hi Augusta! I'm sure you'll be able to find a mix that works, it'll almost surely be called something else though. If you click through to the vitamin listing and look at the photo that lists the ingredients and amounts, just try to find an Austrian brand that comes as close to that combo/those amounts as possible and you'll be set.

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  8. Had so much fun with this tonight, thanks for the wonderful idea!

    We tried to take pics for the kids' photobook and did not have a lot of success. Did you use any extra lighting beyond the blacklight - or did you do anything else special to make your pics come out so well? Thanks (again)!

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    1. Yes, photos in the dark are SUPER hard. You need a camera that has a very high ISO (10,000+) for very clear photos. If you have a point-and-shoot camera, look to see if it has a nighttime setting. But it's not you - it's very challenging to do, unfortunately. :( Glad that they had fun with it!

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    2. If you have a few leftover stars, I tried something the other night that was fun: I put fat glowsticks in the tub (and added a little bubble bath to diffuse the colors a bit). After they'd been playing in there for a while, I brought in a couple of the glowing stars and brought in the blacklight. My little guy is obsessed with space right now, so I told him it was a nebula bath, and he was so happy :) (Bonus: more light meant this was slightly easier to photograph!)

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    3. LOVE that idea! A nebula bath - can't beat it!!!

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