Water Wednesday: Sponge Balls

We made some water fun sponge balls this week! I had seen these on Pinterest and I thought they would be a fun toy to take along to the splash pad both generally and for Nora's birthday party, so we took the opportunity to knock out this project before I go back to work.

Sponge Ball Water Toys

We needed two different things to make these sponge balls:

Sponges

Zip ties

I got the sponges at Target. I chose the cheapest ones you can get that are colorful and non-abrasive. These came in packs of four, each pack with one each of pink, yellow, green, and blue. I got four packs total. They were the Up & Up brand, I believe.

I learned that sponges are not completely dry when you buy them. Or maybe it's just this package? Interesting... One pack I bought came apart and the sponges were harder and dried out already. I had to moisten it to get it to work for me. So make sure your sponges are soft & squishy when you're ready to get started.

First, I cut each sponge into four pieces. I cut them along the short end so that the four pieces were longer, rather than shorter.

Then, I used a zip-tie to attach eight sponge strips together. If you're keeping track, that means I used two sponges per sponge ball and am going to get eight total sponge balls out of my four packs of sponges. I got my zip ties at an arts and crafts store. I happened to walk by some on an end cap and just grabbed them. Some tutorials suggest using rubber bands to make these, if you're looking for an alternative or already have those on hand.

Side note: Make sure you know how to work the zip tie before you go to put your sponges together! For instance, my zip ties required the rough side to be on the inside of the loop for the zip tie to catch.

So, wrap the zip tie around the bundle of sponges, right in the middle. Get it to just latch and then move the pieces around, as needed.

Tighten the zip tie as much as you can (I used my teeth!!!!) and then trim off the extra zip tie. Your sponge ball is complete!

Nora got some good fine motor practice in while we did these since they aren't really a great project for little toddler hands. It may have been the zip ties that I had or... maybe not. But they will love playing with them I'm sure!!

We're looking forward to using our sponge balls!