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
Hey ladies!!
As far as clean up – let it dry. found it on my carpet. It actually dried away from the carpet. Excuse the choppiness of the comment – typing one-handed while I nurse 🙂
i love this idea but i have learnedthe hard way not a kinda thing to put in a ziploc bag and forget about.
Anyone know how long this lasts? I am wanting to make it for birthday presents and have a busy week before the birthday party…I don’t want to make it and then have it no longer set for the birthday party. I have airtight containers and can store in the fridge as some have suggested, just looking for how long this lasts. Thanks!
Keep it in zip loc bags or gladware and it’ll last for MONTHS. AND MONTHS : )
Thanks for the recipe! We are going to make this tomorrow at an 8 yr old “Mad Scientist” birthday party. FYI your “print this” button is not working. 🙂
I have made this in my science class. One little angel’s portion of “gloop” with glue and Borax got dropped behind a table and has been stuck to the carpet for 5 years.
I make it white and let them choose colored craft sticks to stir the gloop. As it starts to set, the color from the wooden craft stick starts to transfer onto the gloop. The red, green, and blue work well. The yellow craft sticks not so well.
You can always tell a real-life mom from her realistic estimate of putting in 15 minutes of work for 3.5 minutes of kid play time…which is used to clean up what was dirtied in the 15 minutes previous. Thanks for the recipe! My boys are gonna think I rock…even after I have to spank #2’s hand for eating the stuff.
We made this with 8 ozs of Elmer’s Glue and a cup of liquid starch.
ok so i did white elmers glue and glitter glue. the glitter glue you get the color and the glitter but not the same consistency as the white glue. the white glue is awesome but i didnt put in food coloring
I didnt want to use food coloring cause i didnt want to worry about having to clean up after it. elmers makes clear glitter glue in several colors. i made this using the green glitter glue and didnt use food coloring it worked great! my son is so excited over this stuff! thanks!
i made the slime yesterday with my two kids and they loved it. hours of entertainment! we added goggly eyes! i linked your post on my blog: http://www.thelettereblog.com/2012/03/17/slime/