Keep Calm – it’s the middle of the week and I’m here to help you achieve calm through some visual relaxation.
Scroll through for the videos at the end to see the Calming Jar in action, and when you want to make your own, come back up here and check out Directions and Materials you need!
I had to come up with a fun craft that kiddos ages 5-10 could do to go with a character lesson on “calm” and this was THE perfect and colorful craft. I saw a handful of posts online and this and this were the most helpful. I came up with my own based on trial and error, which, in full teacherly-fashion, I wrote up on the board. The kids did an awesome job!! For educators and parents out there, these jars are also great from what I’ve read for a time-out for kids (they can watch glitter fall for a set period of time) or to alleviate outbursts.
Food coloring worked well, but when I didn’t have any, I used my trusty watercolors and mixed paintbrush swipes of color with hot water in a glass pyrex (the hot water that you would use to fill the remaining 1/3 of the volume of the bottle not filled already with soap). 
Watercolors, big glitter sequins, shimmery eye shadow, and fun glitter glue (was only $4.99 for a large pack at Target, plus pink, gold, and white for Valentine’s day in the dollar section), SoftSoap from Costco (2 for $9.49). I know you all want to know what this costs, so all in all, it cost around $30 for all the materials I described, including a pack of 6 SmartWater bottles for the kiddos (so they don’t break and shatter – safety first, but you know how good your kids are with glass) and with some saved jars and such from pasta or salsa. The eye shadow was easy to find in the clearance section of Target’s beauty aisles, and the Dollar Spot was helpful with glitter.
The glitter glue is descending here, and if you like the streams of it, you can keep it, or simply use a take-out chopstick to break the glitter glue or any other pieces up. 
Super fine glitter works excellently to add more sparkle and dimension.
Love this effect – almost a bokeh effect!
Reminds me of this beautiful sky……but you can make yours look any color!
The swirling action on these videos is so relaxing. Enjoy! Will you try it out? Let me know how it goes!
