You may have noticed that I’m doing a sensory bin for each letter of the alphabet. What to do for letter X? After looking at some pretty cool light boxes on Pinterest, I decided we could make our own easy sensory activity for kids: X is for X-ray!
You can do this too – talk about simple! Here’s what you need to do:
1) Search for “x-rays” on google images. Print a few on plain paper and copy them onto overhead transparencies with a copy machine. That’s the hardest part of this, I promise.
2) Get out some white Christmas lights and place the lights inside of a large plastic container. My container is transparent. Either way works.
3) Put an opaque lid on the container. If you don’t have a lid, you could turn the box upside down. However, if your box is transparent you may want to put a liner inside (wax paper or something similar) so you can’t see the string of lights. Then put the box in a closet and turn out the lights. (Warning: when you’re done playing, be sure to unplug the lights, or they might start to melt the box. We had the lights on for 2+hours before I remembered to unplug them – no melting, but it was smelling pretty warm!)
4) Give your child the X-ray transparencies and other objects for some sensory fun! My Four counted the bones in this x-ray.
My Six pointed out the brain.
My Four had fun building with his Magna-Tiles on the light box.
We added these glass gems and tiles for more sensory fun. We talked about which were opaque and which were translucent.
This sensory activity kept my kids busy for a short time – less than ten minutes each. But it was a cinch to make, and I can see a great use for it in the future… as a fantastic prop for hospital pretend play!
If you want more light box ideas, here’s a great post from Happy Hooligans (guest posting on CBC Parents).
For many more fun learning ideas for letter X, click on the image below:
© 2013 – 2020, Anna G. All rights reserved.
Angela @ Teaching Mama says
This is awesome! I’ve been wanting to make a light box, so I’ll be trying this out! I love those x-rays, too!
annageig says
Thanks, Angela! You can do much fancier, more spectacular light boxes. But we’re all about simple over here!
Jean says
I made one of these light boxes, but I used LED Christmas lights. They don’t get hot. I really enjoy your site. Thanks for all of the fun ideas
annageig says
Thanks for the tip! I’ll have to remember that for next time. So glad you can use some ideas you find here, Jean!
Samantha @ Stir the Wonder says
This is so neat! I wanted to do this a while back, but never got around to it!
annageig says
Thanks for stopping by, Samantha! I hope it goes over well with your kids.
Val Young says
This is awesome! We are so going to be doing this
annageig says
I’d love to hear how it goes, Val!
Andrea @ No Doubt Learning says
What a fun activity! I’m going to make note to try this out with my own girls!
annageig says
Let me know if they have fun with it, Andrea!
Marie-Claude Leroux says
These are great! Came by through Share It Saturday – and glad I checked it out… fun!
annageig says
Thank you so much for visiting!
brittany says
this is such a wonderful idea! thank you for sharing 🙂
annageig says
You’re welcome, Brittany – thanks for stopping by!
Carrie says
What a great idea!! Thank you for sharing at Sharing Saturday!
annageig says
You’re welcome, Carrie — thanks so much for stopping by!
Carla says
Oooh! I need to buy a box of overhead transparencies! This is so cool! We do a light box with Christmas lights too, but we haven’t used it for x-rays. 😉 Thanks for sharing this at Teach Me Tuesday at Preschool Powol Packets!
annageig says
You’re welcome, Carla — thanks so much for visiting!
Sarah @ My Joy-Filled Life says
I love your idea! We have really been getting into sensory bins/boxes here and I love that yours is so unique.
I will be featuring your post on my blog tomorrow at the Hearts for Home Blog Hop! Stop by and grab an “I was featured” button!
Thanks for sharing!
annageig says
Thanks so much for the feature, Sarah!
Beth says
This is SO clever! What a great idea!!
I featured this at TGIF this week. Feel free to grab an I was featured button if you like.
Thanks for sharing all your creativity with all of us! I hope to see you linked up again later today!!
Have a great weekend,
Beth =)
annageig says
Thanks so much for the feature, Beth!
annageig says
Thank you so much for the feature!
annageig says
Thanks for visiting, Angelue’!
Karyn says
This is just SO cool! Thanks for linking up to Share it Saturday. I featured your post this morning!
annageig says
Thanks so much for the feature, Karyn!!
Crystal says
I love this idea! So many things that can be done with it! I’ll be featuring you on Mom’s Library this week at http://www.crystalstinytreasures.com Thank you for linking up and don’t forget to stop by to grab your ‘Featured’ badge :-0
annageig says
Thanks so much for the feature, Crystal!!
Kelyce says
I used this clever idea for my high school physics project on x-rays. Everyone loved this demonstration! Thank you so much for the idea!
Louise says
Just in time for my 6 year old son’s Vocabulary Parade!!! 🙂
Shinta says
Hi, you still have the image xray u used? Can’t find the proper image for head xray like yours, thanks a lot!
Anna G says
No, this was 7 years ago. 🙂 I just googled it and found an image; legally, I wouldn’t be able to share that image online.