Chickpeas!

Today i made coloured chickpeas as something different for the boys to play with and just a bit of a challenge to me to create something new.

My middle and baby loved it. Chickpeas make a great sound when they hit the tray which is a great auditory sensory activity to get their little ears tuned in as well as being quite tactile.

The chickpeas i used were from cans as i had no dried chickpeas which i think would have worked better and dried better once coloured.

It didnt take too long to put together but drying took maybe half an hour in the sun. Cleaning up didn't take much time either.

To make:

1. I used a can of chickpeas per colour but if you were to use dried i would say as much as you want as they don't swell up.

2. For the canned chickpeas i drained them then added each can to a bowl with a few drops of colour and mixed around (any excess liquid- drain before you put out to dry). 

For dried chickpeas i imagine you could do the same just adding a few drops of colour to the bowl but maybe add a bit of water if needed -just drain before you dry.

3. I then put my canned coloured chickpeas on a plate leaving them in the sun (again you can do the same with dried chickpeas).  

They didn't take long to dry but because they were canned didn't dry back to a hard state as they had been soaked in the brine in the can.

 I think the dried chickpeas would dry back to their hard state as they were before being coloured- probably a much better result.

I did this activity outside so when they were finished i was able to sweep up any chickpeas that had fallen out of the tray with a hand shovel and broom and put them in the compost.

Nonetheless my boys still really enjoyed scooping up the chickpeas and watching them fall- which is great for vision and eye tracking!