Hydrating Your Orbeez
Get a package of dehydrated Orbeez. Purchase your Orbeez online or at your local toy store. You can buy them already hydrated, but it’s more fun and less expensive if you get dehydrated Orbeez and soak them yourself. You don’t need more than 50 Orbeez to make a stress ball, but they’re usually sold in packets of several thousand, so expect to have some left over! It only costs $5-10 to buy 50,000 Orbeez. You can make multiple stress balls, or just hydrate the rest of your Orbeez and play with them. Orbeez are nontoxic and biodegradable. This is a great afternoon project to complete with your child. This is also a fun way to teach students about polymers and moisture retention if you teach a science class.
Place 1 teaspoon of dehydrated Orbeez in a bowl. The beads are pretty small so it’s not worth counting, but you don’t need more than a small scoop to make a standard stress ball. The beads inflate up to 150 times their size when they’re exposed to water, so don’t overdo it here! It’s fine if you have some extra Orbeez left over if you just want to play around with them.
Pour 3 cups (710 mL) of warm water over the Orbeez. Fill up a measuring cup with 3 cups (710 mL) of warm water. Pour the water over the Orbeez and let them soak. If you want to make more Orbeez in the future, always use roughly 3 cups (710 mL) of warm water for every 1 teaspoon of Orbeez. There's no need to cover the bowl. Just leave it out at room temperature.
Wait 12 hours for the Orbeez to absorb the water and expand. Set the bowl aside and wait for the Orbeez to start soaking the water up. They will eventually look like puffy, translucent marbles that feel kind of like gelatin. Give the Orbeez 12 hours to finish expanding. The water should almost be entirely gone when the Orbeez are finished. The Orbeez will be dramatically larger and they should feel squishy and soft in your hands. You can let the Orbeez soak overnight.
Filling Your Stress Ball
Fill an empty 16 fl oz (470 mL) water bottle with your Orbeez. Any empty bottle will work for this, but it’s best to do this with one of those clear disposable bottles with a small mouth. Either drop the Orbeez into the mouth of the empty bottle by hand, or slide a funnel into the opening and pour the Orbeez in all at once. Once they’re hydrated, the Orbeez are colorful and translucent. They look really interesting when they’re sitting in a clear container.
Blow up a balloon halfway and twist the neck 2-3 times to keep the air in. Stretch the neck of your balloon out a bit to soften the latex and blow it up halfway. Pinch the neck of the balloon to keep air from escaping. Then, twist the neck of the balloon a few times to keep the air from slowly leaking out. You can use any color balloon that you’d like, but a clear balloon is best if you want to admire the Orbeez inside the stress ball.
Stretch the mouth of the balloon over the opening of the water bottle. Pinch the twisted neck of the balloon with your nondominant hand. Then, carefully stretch the opening of the balloon over the opening of the bottle. Release the neck of the balloon and let it untwist on its own.
Flip the bottle over to fill the balloon with the Orbeez. Hold the mouth of the water bottle and the balloon together. Turn the bottle over and let the Orbeez pour into the balloon. If any Orbeez get stuck in the mouth of the bottle, shake the balloon and bottle 1-2 times to knock them free. Continue pouring the Orbeez into the balloon until the balloon is mostly full. The amount of Orbeez you pour into the balloon determines the size of the stress ball. You can use any amount that you’d like. You don’t have to use all of the Orbeez if you don’t want to.
Slide the mouth of the water bottle out of the balloon. Once the balloon is full, turn the water bottle back down and pinch the neck of the balloon. Twist the balloon off of the mouth of the water bottle and discard it.
Squeeze the excess air out if you’d like and tie the balloon. If you want a really compact stress ball, release the neck of the balloon and let the air escape. Squeeze the balloon together to force the excess air out and tie the neck of the balloon in a knot. For a fluffier stress ball, pinch the neck of the balloon to keep the air from escaping and tie your knot with the air trapped inside. Your stress ball should last at least 6 months. The Orbeez will break down eventually and your balloon will fill with liquid, but this takes some time. You can prolong the life of your stress ball by keeping it out of direct sunlight when you aren’t using it. If the Orbeez ever break down, you can soak them in water again to reuse them.
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