Young Scientists at Play: Polymer Play – Making Slime

My two little girls aren’t very well this week, so we abandoned BFIAR and I let them lollop and cuddle all week long!  This is an activity we did in our science on Monday morning before illness struck. As always, much fun (and mess) was had!

After the utter joy of bouncy ball making, I thought probably slime would be a hit also.  I gathered a solution of 1 cup water with a tsp of borax dissolved in it.  I placed that in one container in their tray.  Another container I filled with half cup of white glue and half cup of water, to which I added food colouring, gave it a good mix and placed it in the tray also.   I assembled the mini scientists to the table:

Very excited. They LOVE science!
Very excited. They LOVE science!
They poured the glue mixture into their tray
They poured the glue mixture into their tray
Followed by the Borax solution
Followed by the Borax solution
Gave it a good stir
Gave it a good stir
As the Borax solution polymerises the glue mixture, they removed it from the water tray and started kneading it on the table
As the Borax solution polymerised the glue mixture, they removed it from the water tray and started kneading it on the table
And had lots of fun playing with it
And proceeded to have lots of fun playing with it!

After they had finished I gathered it all into a Ziplock bag and popped it in the fridge for their discovery time later on in the week.  I’ll be posting about that tomorrow.