Slime Time!!

Noah had to stay home from school today because he threw up in class yesterday and they have a 24 hour policy in case he is contagious.

So, I needed to come up with something fun for him to do. A few days back I had discovered a couple websites with little science activities for kids to do at home and so stocked up on lots of ingredients to do fun things. Corn starch, vinegar, cream of tartar, baking soda, etc.

So, today, we decided to give GOO a try! This stuff is awesome, and even I had a good time playing with it. Its both a solid and a liquid and goes back and forth depending on how you touch it. You make it in a bowl, and if you whack it with a spoon its very hard, and if you pat it with your fingers its hard, but if you tough it gently, your fingers sink down into like its yogurt. You can scoop some out of the bowl and roll it into a ball and it will stay that way as long as you keep rolling, but if you open your hand it will dissolve into liquid and drip between your fingers!

So the recipe is simple. I would suggest putting down newspaper or paper towels because there will be drippings everywhere once the kids are done playing with this. Also, some old playclothes are in store as the food coloring in the Goo may stain the kids’ clothes.

Goo Recipe:
1 cup Corn Starch
¼ to ½ cup water
Food coloring

That’s all you need!

So first, dump the cornstarch into the bowl that the kids will play with it in. Then, I would advise putting the food coloring into the water that will go into the cornstarch. I found two recipes, one said ¼ cup water and the other said half cup. I started with quarter cup and worked my way up.

So pour the colored water in slowly and start stirring. Its going to be hard to stir so you might want to give the kids a spoon and have one for yourself so you can both stir. Mix it up until its of one consistency. You will see when its right: no more cornstarch flakes, but it still gets firm when you push it around with a spoon. And it will all be one color.

Now play with it! Whack it with a spoon. Pull it up with your fingers and drip it down. Reach in and squeeze it with your hand. Scoop some up and make it into a ball by rolling it quickly. It will stay in a ball as long as you keep it moving. Then open your hand and let it liquify and just melt through your fingers. Way cool.

You might need to add more water or cornstarch. After playing with it for awhile you will find how it works best. Ours was a little too wet, and it will actually get drier as you play with it, so after awhile it started being easier to work with, and I realized it had dried up to just the correct consistency. After another ten minutes, we found it needed to have some more water added.

Apparently, you can pour it into Tupperware or a zippered baggie and keep it in the fridge for some time before it “goes bad” whatever that means. Somewhere I read that it suggested putting a couple drops of Lysol in to keep mold from growing. So I sprayed some into a bit of water and poured that in and mixed it up well.

It cleans up easily, with water, although watch out for the food coloring stains.

Noah LOVED playing with this, and I am sure we will be doing this activity many more times in the future.

Here is a shoutout to a webpage with this slime recipe and lots of other cool activities you can do in your kitchen. Just click this link:

http://www.exploratorium.edu/science_explorer/