All week we have been attending our church’s Vacation Bible School. The kids absolutely love it. It is almost as exciting as Christmas for them! I think that is wonderful, so every morning is fairly relaxing and fun for both myself and the kids. While I volunteer to help out, I also get to talk to some really great people I go to church with and watch the kids as they meet new kids or play with old friends. They get to do art projects, play games outside, learn really cool science experiments, and sing and dance in music. VBS is an amazing organization that churches do for kids.
Derek, Ashley, and their friend Christopher dancing in music at VBS.
One of the science experiments they did was the one with corn starch and water. I thought I might use this time to teach, as I love this experiment! I used to do this one with my high school students when I was in the classroom. (Those were the sane years before kids.) The recipe for it is below. I highly recommend you try it. It is very easy, extremely cool, and not too bad to clean up, either.
Cornstarch and Water Slime!
1. Take about a cup of cornstarch and put it into a bowl or a cookie sheet that has edges on it.
2. Take a small pitcher of water and pour some into the cornstarch and stir. (There is no exact amount of water known for this recipe, so you have to “play it by fingers.”)
3. Mix it with your hands. If the mixture is hard when you squeeze it, but runny when you let it go, you have made the slime. If it is too powdery, add more water. If it is really runny, and never “hardens,” you need to add a tiny amount of cornstarch to it, and then mix it again.
4. Keep playing with it until you get a really cool consistency that makes a hard substance when you apply pressure to it, but a liquid when you let it flow.
5. Play with it for hours!!!
The sliminess of the cornstarch and water
See how hard it can be when pressure is applied to the mixture? Cool, huh?
This is a really quick, easy and extremely fun activity for anyone with kids, and it is inexpensive as well. You and your kids will love it! If you really want to have fun with it, take the tip of a marker out of the pen pat and place it into the water before you put it into the cornstarch. Let alL the color drain into the water, and then make the slime, only this time it will be whatever color you choose! (Use a highlighter and the put it under a backlight…WOW!!!)
