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 didn't even know Elmer's made clear glue! How fabulous! I use to be a "science birthday party entertainer" here in Manhattan and have made slime by the gallons with kids. It was pure awesomeness! My advice/reminders for parents is it is only glue, soap (borax), and food coloring. Food coloring is the only thing that might stain, everything else cleans up easily. And Elmer's brand is the only way to go, other brands never worked as well in my many years of slime making.
Lynn, I would definitely use Elmer's glue. I have read that other "school glues" don't have the same composition. I bet that was the problem!
Hi. We just made up a batch with our kids, and all we got was colored soap and glue soup. What did we do wrong?? Please help!! Does it matter if the glue is a different brand than Elmer's?? It's the same kind of white kids' glue that we used. Just not Elmer's.
Please advise. Thanks!
I haven’t made this recipe, but I would imagine that, yes, it does matter if glue is Elmer’s. I’m a teacher, and I speak from experience when I say that there is a reason Elmer’s and Crayola are considered the “name brand” on school supplies. Spend the extra buck. They work much better and last much longer than off-brand.
I ended up with the same thing.. I’m not sure what went wrong but it just wasn’t mixed well so I stuck it in the microwave for 30 seconds(I made a big batch- 16 oz glue plus other ingredients) and then in the blender on the highest setting for about 2 minutes and it worked out fine! Kids are playing with it as I type 🙂
Just realized how old that question was!! Lol
thanks monica,
mine too didn’t work right away, i put it in the microwave for a few seconds to warm it up and i gave it a vigorous stir and it went from a liquid mess to congealed slime!
Just made up a triple batch for my 3 kids as an end-of-summer goodie. Sadly, none of ours solidified like in your pictures. We got the initial clumps, and working them in just made them smaller, but no more materialized. Hmmm, wonder what I did wrong.
Very weird Stephanie, I don’t know!
Did you use washable glue?
That kid has amazing eyes! I love the first picture. 🙂
I've been WAITING for this post – my boys can't wait to make slime!
Ok, THAT is kind of cool.
It was so great to see you this weekend!! I'm sorry we couldn't chat longer. Snotty kids, changing of the guard, and all that jazz. :-p
This is a fun recipe, but I want to caution moms that borax is essentially boric acid and toxic if ingested. Just keep an eye on the kids.
http://www.greenfootsteps.com/borax-information.html
On your link it clearly states…”Borax is NOT Boric Acic” …just an fyi. It is boric acid once mixed with another ingredient.
How totally cool!!!
lololololol
Southworths- it washes up just fine, no worries there.
Just in time for the rainy season!! I'm going to wait to pull this out of my bag of tricks for when the sun has all but permanently gone away and the rain clouds are daily, but I think my little guy will love it. Does it need to be made in a non-food-prep bowl or does it wash up ok?