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
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.
Did You Make This Recipe?Snap a picture, and hashtag it #ourbestbites. We love to see your creations on our Instagram @ourbestbites!
Questions & Reviews
i did this with my friend tori we loved it it is on face book on my page
love it!!!!! how long will it last?!?
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!