I have been looking forward to the release of Beaker Creatures since I saw their demo at New York Toy Fair in February but it takes a long time to travel through space. Their Reactor Pods are finally landing and waiting for our help to get out! Beaker Creatures come from five different planets and are in search of science adventures.
The Reactor Pods resemble a bath bomb and can be opened in a simple bowl of water, no other kits required. However, my personal opinion is that you get so much more from it with the Liquid Reactor Super Lab. Like many toys, you get out what you put in and Beaker Creatures gives you a great opportunity to put the A in S.T.E.A.M. Adding imaginative play and storytelling to the mix really helps you get all you can from the experience, especially with younger kids.
The Reactor Pods crash landed in our living room and the kids had to find them. When they returned with the pods I had the lab ready to go. We injected the water into the chamber and the bubbling reaction started pouring over the top, which the kids loved. They got to use the forceps to take their creature out and then we worked on identifying it with the classification cards that come with each pod.
After identifying which alien they had, I picked out a question from the science quiz on the back of the mini poster that also comes with every pod. Now these questions are not going to be for the youngest kids, the nearly 6 year old was able to answer at least one question on each sheet though.
As we opened each pod we added to the experiment by adding food coloring to our water for the reaction and seeing what color it made when reacting with the pod color. Once all 3 were open, I got out the tablet and showed them their alien’s home planet via the Beaker Creatures website.
After that, while I cleaned up a bit, the kids all sat down and drew their own Beaker Creatures. And for the grand finale, we use the beakers from the lab to make a volcano which is just one of several other experiments you can do with the set.
Tips:
- Place a cookie sheet under your lab (or bowl) when opening the reactor pods or doing other experiments. It makes clean up so much easier.
- Try to clean up right away so nothing hardens. Don’t forget to rinse out the tubes leading to the chamber and use the injectors to also blow some air through to get the excess water out.
Information:
Product: Beaker Creatures
Company: Learning Resources
Website: https://www.learningresources.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/learningresources/
***Thank you Learning Resources for sending a sample for us to test out and share about. The Playful Parent is not paid to promote companies. All information is my own non-bias opinion.***
Article by: Heather L.
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