Sand and Bean Layering for Kids

While other vendors quietly read or crocheted or gabbed, one lady at the Nashville (IL) Fall Festival last year told me she was kept constantly busy, morning to night, with her sand-layering booth. Kids love to take the odd-shaped bottles she provided and fill them with layers of colored sand which they corked when done and took home. The lady said she was busy like this at every show she attended.

Sand-layering in bottles can be done cheaply at home. The child can come up with some great effects with the variety of bottles and colored sands used. You can use any bottle as long as it is of clear glass. The vendor told me that finding bottles that represented a nice variety was the biggest part of her job.

Sand Layer Jar

Start first with some paper cups, half-filled with sand. Add water to each sufficient to cover the sand.

Next, add powdered fabric dye or drops of liquid food coloring to the water and sand. The more you add, the stronger the colors will be. Stir with plastic spoon. Let stand for 15 minutes.

Pour out water but not the sand. Then spoon the sand on paper towels, keeping the colors separate. Let dry.

Select a clean, dry glass jar for your container, a small one to start. Spoon sand of one color into the jar until there's a solid layer on the bottom.

Continue spooning in sand of different colors, creating a series of layers, all without mixing the colors, of course. The last layer should be at the neck of the jar.

You now need a rod. A long enough pencil or straightened paper clip will do. Insert the rod in through the open top, next to the glass side, and push it firmly all the way to the bottom. Pull the rod out Continue all the way around the jar in this way. This will create the zig-zag pattern in your layers characteristic of sand layer jars.

When done, top off the jar with sand and put a cap on it.

Bean Jar

Essentially, you do the same with beans as you did with colored sand. Here, though, you might want to keep your layers level and, certainly, distinct.

Use dried beans of all types...navy beans, dried lentils, kidney beans, black-eyed peas, and so on. Once you've run through your various types of beans, you can start all over. You can also alternate layers, using navy beans for every other layer, for example.

Use a large, clean glass jar. Again, use a spoon begin creating your first layer of beans and subsequent layers.

When you've completely filled the jar, cap it.