DIY Light Table

During the school year, I brought the boys to a playgroup at one of the local grammar schools and there was a light table with some fun magnetic shapes and translucent legos.  The thing was so neat!  Since then, I've seen some creative and frugal ways to make your own light table (the word table being used loosely) on Pinterest.  

After seeing THIS POST on dollar store finds for light tables, I was inspired to make one and go finish off the gift card to the Dollar Tree that my mom gave me for my birthday...ummm best gift ever? yeah I think so! Three easy steps to make a light table: 1. Get a storage container with a clear lid.  I used an under the bed type container.  I've seen pins using taller ones, and even ones with a white lid (in this case they attached lights to the inside of the lid and used the box upside down). 2. Tape white tissue paper to the inside of the lid to diffuse the light.  I guess this is optional, I've seen posts that skip this step, and I've seen posts that go all out and use spray paint to frost the lid. 3. Add lights to the bottom.  I used white Christmas lights and taped them to the bottom of the container.   Voila! Best part is.... I already had all of these things! Didn't spend a dime! My Dollar Tree Treasures I couldn't find everything listed in the post that inspired this shopping trip, plus I dragged my sister along with me and so doing 15 laps through the store was out of the question... a solo trip is much needed (and while you may think a dollar store intervention is much needed, I assure you... I don't have a problem, I can stop at any time).

• Decorative glass stones in different sizes (I liked the assorted color bags)
• Linking jewelry shapes
• Brightly colored storage boxes
• Glow in the dark ceiling shapes
• Translucent rulers
• Plastic shot glasses
• Multi-colored stacking pill case
• Subject dividers (for binders...to cut into shapes)
• Hair gel (to put into ziplock baggies and add color or glitter for sensory play)
• Shaving cream (another sensory play idea from my sister)

Not from the Dollar Tree, but worth mentioning: I ordered tangrams and orbeez off ebay and I can't wait for them to get here!

Introducing the Light Table

Once breakfast was said and done, I told the boys I had a surprise for them.  They got excited as I closed the curtains and got the room dark and ready.  To introduce the idea of light play to the boys, and to see how well my purchases worked out, we spent a little bit of time with everything instead of focusing on one thing.  In the future I hope to have more structured play as well as free play... but today we just worked our way through all the different "toys." 

 We used the plastic shot glasses to create a pattern.  Blue, green, blue green.  It was very serious work.

 The boys stacked and unstacked the little cups over and over and over and over....

... I introduced a new way to stack the cups which was very well received by Oliver.

Owen had a grand ol' time counting things. 

They both liked filling and pouring the little cups.

We used the storage containers to experiment with color mixing.  Red and blue made a good purple, and the blue and yellow did a good job demonstrating green, but the red and yellow did not make a distinct enough orange.  Oliver then had fun seeing what happened to the colors when stacking 3 or even all 4 of them.

These were also fun to fill with other things.

We made a dinosaur scene featuring a T-Rex standing in front of a volcano, an Elasmosaurus swimming in water, and a Stegosaurus and Triceratops chowing down on some green plants. 

And here is Brachiosaurus eating leaves from the top of a tree.

 Oliver then had a terrific idea to create museum cases to put the dinosaurs in for everyone to see.

We used a ruler to measure and compare the dinosaurs, and later some zoo animals.

I just love this light table... it was so easy and so fun!  I'm trying to think of a cheap and easy way to build an actual TABLE for us, maybe put some pallets to use?  I mean you can make just about anything out of pallets, right!?  But this is certainly good enough, and it doesn't take up too much space.  Fits right under the bed!