DIY colored glue letters, numbers, and shapes for the light table

This is actually still kind of a work in progress that I started exploring last school year…

I was hoping to create our own letters and numbers for the light table – and for the most part, this worked very well but it does still need tweaked a bit…

Colored Glue

To start with, we made our own colored glue using a process that is just like this post from Almost Unschoolers….

Making letters, numbers, and shapes

To make our glue shapes, we started by placing letter, number, and other shaped cookie cutters on a sheet of contact paper. Place the contact paper sticky side up on your table, then firmly press the flat side of your cookie cutters to the contact paper. This does a good job of holding most of the cookie cutters in place – keeping the glue from leaking out of the bottom of the cookie cutters…

Next, begin filling up each cookie cutter with your colored glue. I suggest filling the cookie cutters up about half full…

Once the glue is added to the cookie cutters, set them aside to dry. The drying time depends on how much glue you use but it could be several days before the glue is completely dry.  Now keep in mind, the longer the glue dries, the harder the glue becomes.  For example, after one day of drying time, our glue was pretty dry and the objects were somewhat flexible or bendable. After the glue dried for several days, our objects became very hard and were not bendable at all…

While pouring the glue into the cookie cutter molds, don’t worry if the glue doesn’t spread all the way to the edges of the mold right at first.  As the glue sits in the cookie cutter mold – it will most likely start to flatten and spread throughout the mold…

We also made a few glue designs on the contact paper without the molds just to see how that would work out…

The glue spreads out more without the cookie cutter mold but it can work fine too for most basic shapes but for some reason, it was harder to get the shapes without the cookie cutter molds off of the contact paper after they dried…

Once your glue shapes are completely dry – then you can begin to peel them off the contact paper and out of the cookie cutter molds.  This is the tricky part. We broke some of our thinner glue shapes as we were popping them out of the cookie cutter molds…

The kids loved popping the shapes out of the molds, so I just let them go for it…

In the end, we didn’t end up with a full set of letters or numbers because we broke a few along the way but we still used what we had left to explore on our light table…

I still have quite a few left over that even after months of play, did not break. I am planning on making more but I like I said, this is a work in progress and I haven’t perfected how to keep them from breaking along the way – but what we did make turned out fantastic on the light table!  I think they just might make fun game pieces too!

Have you made something like this with glue? Got any tips to share? Leave a comment below!

Available on Amazon

 

Links to Grow On

Check out all of the ideas you can do with Glue on Pinterest!

Deborah J Stewart

Deborah J Stewart

Every time I think I know everything I need to know about teaching young children, God says, "Hold on a minute!" and gives me a new challenge.

Let me tell ya...

With each new challenge that you overcome, you will find yourself better equipped and more passionate about teaching young children.

God didn't call wimps to lead, teach, or care for His children. Nope, he has high expectations, so get ready. You will have to give your very best but after teaching for over 30 years, I can tell you that it is a wonderful and rewarding journey.

Whenever your calling feels hard, just remember, 'He who began a good work in you (and in the children you serve) will be faithful to complete it.'

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