The girls and I made moon sand to play with today and it is so simple to do, I thought I would post it for you as well.
Moon sand is different from regular sand because it is a little denser so it can be molded into shapes. The easiest way to explain it is if you imagine building a sand castle. It is much easier to work with wet sand then it is to work with perfectly dry sand. So it can be a lot of fun to get brightly colored sand for the little ones to make all sorts of things with.
Moon Sand you just need to mix together once and it can be reused over and over. The colors won’t stain and once the kiddos get bored with it, you can always do art with the colored sand or brightly colored sand is really pretty in a clear glass jar with a votive candle.
To make moon sand you need to track down either plain white craft sand (sometimes found at Dollar Stores) or pre-colored sand.
You can use the large bags of play sand from home improvement stores but I couldn’t figure out a way to get it to hold color. We tried using food coloring and it was a total mess. If you do find the plain white sand at the Dollar Store, you should be able to mix in a little food coloring. I was not able to find it so I can’t say for certain how well it works.
I finally found colored sand at Hobby Lobby for $2.49 (1 1/2 lbs)- use the 40% off coupon they offer each week and it is just $1.50. Crayola used to make colored sand but I wasn’t able to find it anywhere. Lakeshore Learning also has colored sand but I found it to be fairly expensive.
You also need Corn Starch- the box above was $1.00 at Walmart.
To make the sand is very simple and you can adjust this ratio to any quantity you like:
- 2 cups Colored Sand
- 1 cup corn starch
- 1/2 cup water
The colored sand above was exactly 2 cups.
Just mix all of those ingredients together in a bowl. The color will not bleed so I just used my hands to do this.
And that is it! Simple and really not very expensive.
Now we are not the type to leave well enough alone around these parts. So I also let the girls mix in some glitter and we buried marbles inside our bowls of sand to dig up as treasure. The big bags of marbles are only $1.00 at the Dollar Store.
The girls actually played with this for quite awhile today.
You can find more Children’s Craft Ideas for Summer by scrolling down here.
Walmart has the colored Crayola sand in their garden center, we had gotten some for the kids sand box….it is a seasonal item so I am not sure when the stores stop carring it.
Amber,
I checked two Walmart stores a few times and could not find it over the past 6 weeks. I also tried to order online and they kept running out. So that is another option for colored sand if you can track it down.