Stars in a Jar

This craft is not necessarily made BY the kids, but most definitely made FOR the kids! As many of you may know my handsome Bubby is on the Autism Spectrum, and one of his “things” is that he’s prone to outbursts or even the occasional melt down. I’ve seen these calming jars on AutismSpeaks.com and other Autism friendly blogs so I thought I’d give it a try. Perfect(?) timing too! We had a melt down this afternoon and a trip to bed with the newly named “stars in a jar” bottle and we calmed right down! “Mommy it looks like a galaxy!”

You will need:

* Empty clear vessel—for kid use please use plastic, imagine cleaning up glitter, water, glue, and glass.

* Elmer’s clear glue

* Glitter

* Food coloring (optional)

* Gorilla glue, hot glue, or something to seal the lid when complete

Step One:

Fill glue a good portion of the way up your empty container. (Use my finger as your guide, ha!)

Step Two:

Put hot water in—I’d save a little room to add glitter and if you wanted to add larger beads, which I’ve also seen done.

Step Three:

Food coloring. I used 3 drops of blue, didn’t want to make it too dark.

Step Four:

Ever hear the saying “Glitter is the herpes of the craft world”? Well, I’ll have glitter in random places for the rest of my life because at this step you should dump in a TON of glitter. I used 1/2 my bottle. You can also take this step and put in little plastic treasures and make this a seek and find game.

Step Five:

Fill water the rest of the way if you have room left and glue the lid on. Once dry give it a shake and show your kiddos how you captured the stars in a jar!

Final Verdict? I have to freely admit, I am mesmerized by the calming affect this has. I know a few of my co-workers who could probably use this!

Kid Friendly? Yes—once it’s done. I heard a great use from one parent, if the child is mad and sent to time out, give them the jar, tell them they can shake it as long as they’d like, but they cannot leave timeout until all the glitter has settled. Considering the calming affect this has that’s a pretty cool idea!