Water beads or aqua beads are such a fun sensory material. Sensory play activities with water beads as base are sure to be a big hit with the kids. They are smooth, squishy and lend themselves to many wonderful spin offs . Add shaving cream, play under a light table and many more. We did a pond sensory play activity for toddlers with those guys. But the sad part is they are inedible to say the least – swallowing those little guys leads to severe complications. In order to have a much calmer time while playing with water beads I really wished for a look-alike that was safe even if ingested accidentally.

Introducing “water-beads” look-alike BOBA pearls. Sensory activity with water beads look-alike that are safe to eat! Now that will make it baby and toddler safe.

If you are new to boba pearls, check outarticle for more information. They are tapioca balls and are used in a popular Taiwanese drink – bubble tea.

Recipe

Boba pearls are available easily online on Amazon. Here is an affiliate link to buy it from Amazon.

I went for the rainbow boba but they come in many colors. Make sure you get the 5 minute boba for a quick recipe.

Then I followed the directions and cooked the pearls. For 1/2 cup of pearls add 5 cups of water and boil them until they start to become tender.

Cover and simmer for 3-4 more minutes and you should get these pearls. Truly they cooked with 5 minutes.

The colors are bright by themselves but for an extra fun sensory activity I wanted even brighter colors. So food colors to the rescue. I added a drop of gel food color and made a batch of rainbow boba pearls. A colorful sensory activity!

My rainbow line up of beads for a fun sensory activity.

I let the boba pearls sit for about half an hour until the color is absorbed and sets in.

Play

Now time to play with this SAFE sensory element.The only think you need to remember is while these tapioca balls are fun by themselves they are sticky and attach to each other. That’s a different kind of fun.