Glow In The Dark Bouncy Balls You Can Make At Home

Kids love bouncy balls and now they can make their own!

Glow in the dark bouncy balls are great fun to play with and are really fun to make. With these simple instructions, you can easily make your bouncy balls with your kids.  

We've listed everything you need to know about making bouncy balls. Kids will absolutely love this activity as they get to squeeze squidgy material, and make fun bouncy balls that they can have hours of fun playing with! Take a read below and get making!

Bouncy balls are great fun but they aren't recommended for young children. We recommend this activity for children aged 5 and over. And if your children are younger than 8, then more careful supervision while making the balls is also advised.

The ingredients below are a guide for making four glow in the dark bouncy balls. But depending on the quantity and size you'd like, you can adjust the number of ingredients, keeping the ratios the same. These ingredients are simple to find and can be bought online or in supermarkets.

Ingredients:

1 cup of warm water

2 tablespoons of cornflour

2 tablespoons of borax powder

4 tablespoons of glow in the dark acrylic paint

4 tablespoons of non-toxic PVA school glue  

Equipment:

A large mixing bowl

A smaller mixing bowl

Measuring spoons

Stirring spoon or something else to stir the ingredients

Method:

1. Add the cup of hot water to the large mixing bowl and then mix in the borax powder until it's completely dissolved.

2. In the small bowl mix all the glue and paint together, making sure the colour is completely stirred in.

3. Add the cornflour to the larger bowl which contains the dissolved borax powder. Stir this in really well.

4. Now add the glue mixture into the other mixture. You will notice that these two won't mix well and the glue will turn into a lump of harder putty-like glue. Don't worry- this is supposed to happen!

5. Squeeze this glue with your hands to get out all of the air bubbles. Keep doing this and then remove from the water. Continue to knead once the material is out of the water.

6. If you and the kids are making four balls, separate the gluey material into four and roll them all into ball shapes. Continue to roll, shape and bounce for around half an hour. You might decide to do this while watching the telly or listening to some music that you love.

7. Once you and your kids are happy that the material is complete, the bouncy ball is ready to play with! Your bouncy balls might loose their shape when you bounce them, especially when you try and bounce them at first. This is okay; just keep rolling them back into the shape of a ball.

8. When you have finished playing with your bouncy balls, store them in an air-tight container to stop them from drying out.

It might come as a surprise that the science behind a ball's bounce is quite advanced! The reason a ball bounces is due to its elasticity, which also determines how high a ball will bounce. The higher the elasticity, the higher the bounce.

Did You Know: Due to gravity, a ball will never be bouncy enough to bounce higher than the point you drop it?

- Try making more than one batch of bouncy balls. The more you stir the material and the more balls you make, the more you will get used to the process, and your bouncy ball will get better and better!

- Try using lots of different colours. If you and your kids want to create really awesome rainbow bouncy balls, then for Step 2 above, fill three smaller bowls with three different colour glue mixes, and then roll them together as per the following steps. Your kids will love this as it will make their bouncy balls really unique! Try using both no glow in the dark paints and normal paints to really get the glow in the dark material to stand out!

- You can get creative and customise your bouncy balls. Add glitter to the glue mixture to make them sparkle. These bouncy balls can make great DIY party gifts. Put them in party bags, or use them as pass-the-parcel fillers.