Hair gel sun catchers are easy for toddlers and preschoolers to make, and fun to squish and look at when taped to a window. This is such an easy sensory craft for fall and an engaging halloween activity for toddlers and preschoolers.
There are lots of ideas floating around these days that call for filling a ziplock bag with paint, or hair-gel, or slime, and I thought they looked like fun.
We made some today, and put a bit of a different spin on them, turning them into sun-catchers for fall and Halloween.
 
We just used no-name sandwich bags, which really aren’t terribly durable. If you’re planning on using yours for lots of play, I’d recommend using a name brand baggie that can take a bit of abuse, and perhaps also taping the top shut to prevent possible leaks. We didn’t tape ours shut. We like living on the edge sometimes.
How to make your hair gel sun-catcher
Supplies:
- Hair Gel
- Food colouring (optional)
- Plastic Ziplock Bag
- Odds and Ends to add to the bag (leaves, googly eyes, lentils etc.)
Have your child squeeze a generous amount of hair gel into a plastic ziplock bag.
If you’re using clean gel, add a drop or two of food colouring, zip up the bag, and have the little ones mash that all around to tint the gel.
Open the bag and drop your add-ins into the gel.
We made an orange bag, and added orange lentils and black styrofoam cut-outs to make a pumpkin face.
Another bag we tinted green, and added googly eyes, purple glitter, black beans, and a black twist tie so we could make a Frankenstein face.
The third bag, we tinted yellow-orange, and added fall leaves and orange lentils.
The Hooligans had a great time with the face bags, trying to create and re-create the jack-o-lantern, and Frankenstein.
The leaf bag didn’t work quite as well, as the leaves didn’t really want to budge in the gel.  
It did however, make a pretty suncatcher, which made me think to tape them all to the window. I taped them low enough that they can still be played with.
Cute? Â I think so!!
Jackie is a mom, wife, home daycare provider, and the creative spirit behind Happy Hooligans. She specializes in kids’ crafts and activities, easy recipes, and parenting. She began blogging in 2011, and today, Happy Hooligans inspires more than 2 million parents, caregivers and Early Years Professionals all over the globe.
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Teach Preschool
We made these too! They are so much fun!
Tracy
We made the boneyard wreath and it was soooo much fun! Thanks for the idea! Ur so awesome
Melissa (@ChMuffinTree)
Love the Fall theme!….there could be one for every season!
Lori Apgar
Awesome ideas!!
Debra Purvis
Love it…gonna stop at Dollar General tonight to get some clear (or near clear) hair gel…don’t have pretty leaves quite yet that we can reach…but soon!!!
Marlene Thomson
can’t wait to try this.. I’ll post pics later on my blog of how they turned out.. GREAT Idea!
happyhooligans
Have fun, Marlene! I’d love to see your pics!
Kierna Corr
Jackie, these are soooooo cool – I love them!
andiejaye
these are so fun! thanks for the comment the other day! i love this blog!!! you have so many wonderfully creative activities! i’ve got you on my blog roll in my side bar so i can know when your new posts come up 🙂
happyhooligans
Thank you! I LOVE your blog too! Yours is packed full of awesome ideas!
JDaniel4's Mom
I would love for you to link this post to my Halloween Traditions link up! These look like such fun! What a great idea!
happyhooligans
Thanks for the invite! I’ll do that!
urbanflowerpot
What a fun idea! I’ve used hair gel in sensory bottles for density but never thought to put it in baggies and strap it to a window 🙂 Looking forward to trying it.
Sarah @ How Wee Learn
These are great! I used hair gel in baggies to practice sight words in Kindergarten – they feel very nice to write on with a finger! Making them into little Fall Sensory activities is a wonderful idea!
Ann Dwan
Loved this project…made one with a spider web and spiders…super cute! Thanks!
happyhooligans
A spider and spider web would be very cool, Ann! I’ll have to keep that idea in mind!
anna lemmons
I saw this post tonight and thought of my almost 10 month old daughter immediatly. She loves to stand at our glass door and look into the back yard, so I made a few of these and taped them up on the glass for her to find in the morning. She is going to love them! Slight change though, because I didn’t have hair gel and my little is asleep, I used Karo syrup and a couple of squirts of paint. Looks great! Feels nice and smooshy!
happyhooligans
That’s great, Anna! She’ll have so much fun with them! Good thinking substituting with the Karo syrup!
Tia
Thank you for this fun idea! I mean, I know about sensory bags for learning in the classroom and teaching adjectives. However, I never thought about it for a fun summer activity! I’ve been trying to figure out ways to engage my younger sister, as well as motivate her into doing some studying this summer. I found this post on ‘Hands On As We Grow’ fyi.
We did a Summer-Themed Sensory Bag (because it’s summer and we live near the beach) with oil, food colouring, sand and seashells, a sun (foam cut-out) and seaweed (yarn)! It was cool and she loved it! Tomorrow, we’re doing the lava lamp! So I figure, I’ll let her do some fun activities and then learn the times tables afterwards.
Thank you again for really easy, fun and cost-effective activities!
happyhooligans
Your summer sensory bag sounds great!