September is in full swing and we thought we’d celebrate by doing Back-to-School week! My oldest kiddo just started pre-school and Kate is now the mother to an official kindergartner. This week we’re going to have *five* posts. Hear that? A post every single day of the week you lucky duckies. So make sure to check in! Kate is going to be sharing some great breakfast and school lunch foods (something we’ve gotten tons of requests for) and I’m going to do some really fun kitchen crafts/science projects that are great for entertaining young hands and minds. Which brings me to today’s post.
Do you guys remember this??
I was so obsessed with that stuff and I totally remember the commercials. When I made this homemade version I couldn’t believe that it had the exact same smell. Took me right back to 6th grade!
If you’ve ventured into science fun like this before then you already know that 97% of home projects require the same 2 ingredients. Elmer’s glue and borax. In fact, I’m convinced if I combine them in enough different ways I’m sure to come up with then next earth-shattering invention like velcro, post-it notes or spray cheese.
Start by dissolving a teaspoon of Borax in one cup of water and set it aside.
Now pour the Elmer’s glue in a separate bowl. You can use either clear glue or white glue for this. For this first batch I’m using clear.
Add some water to that glue
and then stir in some food coloring. I think green is quite fitting for slime, don’t you?
Once that’s all stirred up, just pour your Borax mix into the bowl. You will instantly see masses forming in there. Straight out of an alien movie I tell ya. Or a science book. I know there’s some science-y explanation for the magical formation of slime, but I couldn’t tell ya. Something about polymers…man I used to be really awesome at chemistry. Now I just make really awesome cookies. I think cookies are way more useful as an overall life skill.
See? Say it with me: ewwwww! You just want to use your hands at this point and just kind of stir and smoosh and try to get all of the solids.
It will be wet and soft at first but you just have to keep kneading it. The moisture will knead out or absorb (just toss the liquid left in the bowl) and soon you’ll have a nice blob. Normally a finished product resulting in a “blob” is not a good thing, but this is an exception. Love your blob.
I have to say I actually prefer the white glue. I don’t know why, it just seemed to have a nice texture (you know, because I’m such a connoisseur of slimy blobs). This time I enlisted my only favorite helpers. This is a fun project for kids, just supervise and make sure they’re old enough to understand it’s not something to eat.
Older kids can help measure and stir and younger ones can stand and protest that they don’t get to. And then try to eat the science experiment. It’s all about the family fun.
This is their favorite part. Both of my kids said in unison, “Ahhhhh!! There’s something in there!”
This is a good picture of what you’ll get when you first try to grab it. You might think you messed up because it’s so loose. Just keep smooshing!
And soon it will look like this. Nice and smooth and dry to the touch.
It only takes minutes to make and your kids will think you’re awesome. And it will totally keep them busy for at least 3.5 minutes. Hopefully even more if your kids have longer attention spans than mine do.
What kid doesn’t like to squish slimy things?? Even *I* love playing with this stuff!
Homemade Slime
Description
Your kids will have so much fun in the kitchen with this homemade slime!
Ingredients
- 1 teaspoon borax powder
- 1 1/2 C water, divided
- 4 oz (1/2 C) Elmer’s glue, clear or white
- food coloring
Instructions
- Add borax powder to 1 cup of water and stir to dissolve. Set aside. Pour glue into a medium mixing bowl and add 1/2 C water. Add a few drops of food coloring until desired color is reached and then stir to mix glue solution until smooth.
- Pour the borax mixture into the glue mixture and watch the solids start to form. Stir for a few moments and then use your hands to gather the mass. The mixture will be very soft and wet.
- Keep kneading until it firms up and feels dry. Discard excess liquid in bowl. The more you knead and play with the slime the firmer it will become. Store in a ziplock bag or air tight container and the slime will keep indefinitely.
Notes
- *Note: that this is not a recipe for human consumption. It is for play purposes only. Make sure to supervise young children.
Questions & Reviews
Hot Water melts Gak instantly! I am a preschool teacher and have gotten it out of my students hair and clothing no problem!
Just made neon greens slime for a Halloween party! It turned out awesome. It really seems like it’s not going to work, but if you just keep squeezing the stuff, it magically comes together in a few minutes.
Oh, this looks like fun! My granddaughter will love it.
I’m a nanny (I have a 3 year old and a two year old) and I literally just made this with them. (typing this as they play with it!). They LOVE it. Thank you so much for this post!!! 🙂
Awesome! I just made a batch with my twin boy kindergarteners , and they could not stop giggling! I am in charge of a game in their class next week at the Halloween party, and I am totally doing this with them.
I just made this recipe for my boyfriends grandsons. My concern is … I used Gel Food Coloring and when I “kneaded” the gak my hands were stained a pale neon pink.
What food coloring product did you use? Can you also substitute Neon Craft Paint for the food coloring?
Thanks in Advance for your reply,
Tammy Craggs (pink Hands)
I used the McCormick brand , and it didn’t turn our hands colors. It did a great job turning our slime green though 🙂
Hi, I was really excited when I found this slim recipe posted on Pintrest and couldn’t wait to try it. I knew already that “Borax” wasn’t sold as “Borax” here in Germany so I was looking for an alternative and found that Borax is not sold at all to private people (just with a license for research and production) and that it is a controlled substance. I asked myself why and took a look around online. I found that a very small amount (less then a teaspoon depending on the size of the child) is deadly to a small child. This link http://www.magicalchildhood.com/articles/borax.htm
sums up the risks and gives a couple others sites with facts. Like the site says there a plenty of dangerous chemicals in my house but I’m not giving them to my kids to play with. ~ Leona
We made this today!! It was great. We didn’t have any of the problems mentioned above. We used one drop of food coloring and that was plenty. No stained hands or table! Thanks for the blog post!
Was worried it wouldn’t come together but when it did what a blast!!! We put it in dixie cups and then blew into it with straws making amazing bubbles and fart noises!!!! Creative play is so fun, thank you for your creativity.
PS – I’ve just noticed the time on the comment. No my girls aren’t up all night – it’s almost 3pm here.
Thanks for this recipe. My two girls and I have just made a batch. We used clear glue and added some (tiny/very fine) glitter. It’s a hit!
Thanks again; I needed a break today and I’m hoping it’ll amuse them for a few minutes at least 🙂
Does it HAVE to be Elmer’s brand or can it be any cheap brand of glue?
i just tried it. i happened to have a bottle of white glue that i got on sale from the last “back to school” sale at target. and the borax i happened to have on hand from making my own laundry detergent! i left it without color so it wouldnt stain. and no fighting over who got what color.
great stuff!
I saw this fun idea when I was looking for fun things to do with my little brother or when I baby sit. I tried using Baking Soda because we don’t have Borax. This didn’t work. It is now just in a green liquidy form. Please tell me what I can do, or where to get some (is it cheap?) Thanks!
Bethany, Borax is a key ingredient here, there are no substitutions. It’s easily found with the laundry soap in the grocery store and is inexpensive.
I am making this today with the kiddos. Thank you for sharing!
What if we add glitter? ^^
We made this today! It was so much fun. Thank you for sharing. I did a post about it and linked back to your blog. Thanks again for the inspiration. 🙂 http://www.laurascraftylife.com/2012/06/science-for-kids-making-slime.html
We made this this morning and when they finally got bored with it, they were putting it into containers…and it magically turned into flap, the farting putty!! They have had so much fun with it!! And my kids are 9 and 11!!
Walmart carries Borax! I was having trouble finding it also because i was looking in the laundry detergent isle. When I went back to look for it again, I found it with the starch. Hope this helps! Can’t wait to make this with the kids I’m babysitting for this summer!
We just did this and it was great!!! The boys are loving it! Thanks for such easy instructions!!!
For fear of a food coloring disaster I am going to soak an old washable marker in the water to see how that works, I’ll try to post if it works or not.
Thinking of trying this, but I live in Costa Rica and we don’t have Borax. I’m wondering if I could use boric acid? Has anyone ever tried that?
Love the recipe! My boys will love it! I was just wondering how you would store it after it’s made, and the fun is done-for now. Cant wait to try it.
I used to make this with my kids when they were little. So fun! If you roll a small ball of it, you can bounce it like a super ball. 🙂
Fun to try:
Put a funnel into an empty mayonnaise or pickle jar (or something similar). Roll your slime into a nice round ball and put the ball into the funnel. Check it out every 10 minutes or so. Over time it will flow through the funnel and “pour” into the jar–slow motion fluid flow!
I did this with my daughter and her half brother one weekend. We added glow in the dark acrylic paint to the mixture for added fun after seeing something smilar on pintrest.
My son was home sick from school a few days ago so I decided to do something fun with him during the time the Tylenol was making him feel a little better. We made 3 batches of slime in different colors with different kinds of glue. We both had so much fun and it was wonderful to see him enjoying himself on a sick day! 🙂
I made this today with my 3 year old. She loved it!! The slime with the clear glue isn’trelly slmie but with the white glue it was slimy. I would suggest just using it with white glue. My 3 year old doesn’t like the clear glue one its not slimy it is more rubbery. Thanks though for posting i was fun to make and she loves it!!