We made homemade Oobleck today — something I haven’t done since I was a child. It’s easier than making flubber and the ingredients are not toxic, so it’s a great project for younger children. Plus, it cleans up quite easily with warm water!
It’s fascinating stuff — and even more fascinating is the fact that it only cornstarch and water to make. It hardens up into a thicker dry paste, then softens up into a gooey liquid, and back again as you mess with it. It’s hard to describe with words how it feels the the different forms it takes, so I just encourage you to try it for yourselves and see what it’s all about.
I can almost guarantee you’ll have some fun with it! To read more about the science behind Oobleck or to get some more ideas of things you can have your children try with it, check out Science Bob’s Blog.
Homemade Oobleck
makes enough for one child — we made separate colors for each child
- 1/4 cup corn starch
- 2-3 Tablespoons water
- 2-4 drops food coloring of your choice
Put the corn starch in a bowl. Mix the food coloring into the water. Add water and stir until it forms a paste. Spoon onto foil or a cookie sheet or plate and let your child have fun playing!
Cleans off easily with warm water.
Did you do something fun and frugal as a family today? If you blogged about it, I’d love for you to leave a link to your blog post below. Or, you can just tell us what you did in the comments.
Note: Since the purpose of this series is to encourage you to be intentional about fun in your home this summer, please only link up posts showing pictures/sharing details of fun things you did as a family today (or within the last few days). Posts that do not adhere to these guidelines will be deleted in order to make it fair for those who are putting forth a lot of effort to participate in this challenge.
I haven’t tried it yet but saw on Pinterest that someone added the liquid from a glowstick and made glow in the dark oobleck… I’m been hoping to try it soon!
oopps… “I’m hoping,” not “I’m been hoping” 🙂
Love all these great ideas!!!
We made this today and it was so easy and fun for my toddlers….The clean up was easy, I put wax paper down on the table and that worked well…the only downside is now my older daughter’s hand look like a smurf…For some reason the blue food coloring I used for her doesnt want to come off much…I used green for my other daughter and it came right off…Oh well…Still a fun activity!
Okay, this looks like it would be easy to make and so much fun for my boys but I’m more concerned with how you got your oobeleck to match your son’s shirt so perfectly!! Nice job! 🙂
Just made this for my kiddos for them something to do, and they LOVE it!! Thanks for the cheap fun idea!!
There is a Dr. Seuss story called Bartholomew and the Oobleck that would be a good read aloud to go with this activity. I used to read the story to my students and then tell them that I visited the Kingdom of Didd and brought back some Oobleck for them to play with. It was a fun science lesson.
This looks like a lot of fun. My tip would be to buy some cheap trash bags (not to use for the trash). And cut them open and cover the table. That way when you are done the clean up is easy and the table doesn’t get messed up at all. You never know with food coloring what might stain.
Oobleck sounds so easy and fun, especially for pleasing kids of different ages. It looks similar to the fizzy homemade chalk paint….hmmm, we may have to add baking soda at some point!
I always make this at school with my 1st graders and they LOVE it!! I make it when we study solids and liquids and after they’ve had a chance to play with it for awhile I ask them whether they think it’s solid or liquid. It’s interesting to hear their thoughts and their reasoning behind it.
Great idea! We’ll have to try it!
We used to do this at summer camp and I forgot all about it!
I have made the Oobleck with my daughter a few years back. We may need to make it again as I am sure my son would enjoy playing with it.
We made some seed bombs at our house. Once they are dry we are hoping to deposit a few in our flower beds and see how they grow.
I was going to do this with the kids this week for a science experiment that my 4yo could particpate in, but the weather has been too hot to do it outside. I was worried about the clean up and since it shouldn’t be too bad, we can do it indoors. Now with the Dr. Suess reference I can really make it more memorable.
We live in Colorado and there is a fireworks ban because of all the wildfires. So for the 4th of July, we did rainbow bubble snakes (total hit), ran through the sprinklers and drew fireworks with our sidewalk chalk. We were going to do the bouncy balls but I was out of Borax. Thanks for all the great ideas and inspiration!
My kids love this… we call it Gak at our house
We call it Gak as well, never heard of the other term. Neat!
We made this once and it was SO much fun!!!