Make Your Own Slime with Elmer’s Glue & Borax — A Perfect Halloween Activity!

Hal­loween is the per­fect time to do the clas­sic “make your own slime” activ­ity with the kid­dos! It’s a great sci­ence exper­i­ment and easy to do! When I taught jr. high sci­ence, we made it every year as part of our Hal­loween “Mad Sci­en­tist” Day class! It’s one of my favorites!

Sup­plies:

- Elmer’s glue (you can use white or clear for dif­fer­ent looks)

- Borax (found in the laun­dry aisle)

- water

- food col­or­ing if you want col­ored slime (green, in this case)

- some­thing to mix in & stir with

*Note: As with many sub­stances, Borax is a chem­i­cal and should be han­dled with adult super­vi­sion. As with many soaps and clean­ers, it can irri­tate sen­si­tive skin and can be harm­ful if swal­lowed. With this prepa­ra­tion, the Borax will be extremely diluted and I per­son­ally have never had any issue mak­ing this recipe with kids, but still it’s worth not­ing.

Direc­tions:

Orig­i­nally, back in my jr. high teach­ing days, I got the direc­tions for slime mak­ing from Steve Span­gler Sci­ence. So, you can def­i­nitely check that out.  Basi­cally, you need to do a com­bi­na­tion of 50% glue &  50% water (add food col­or­ing) and a Borax solu­tion. Make the Borax solu­tion first–I filled a water bot­tle with warmish water and dis­solved about 1 Table­spoon of Borax in it. Then, we squeezed glue into plas­tic cups (about an inch deep) and added about the same amount of green water. Stir that together well.

Once you’ve mixed that, add a small amount of the Borax solu­tion while stir­ring. Almost imme­di­ately, you’ll start to notice the mol­e­cules con­nect­ing and slime form­ing. See?!

Keep adding lit­tle amounts of the Borax solu­tion until you have your desired con­sis­tency (the more Borax you add, the more firm the slime becomes). Once you like the way it feels, play away and then put it in a ziploc bag­gie when you’re done. It will keep for quite some­time and is sure to be a hit with the kids–the boys were SO excited!!!!

What at-home sci­ence exper­i­ments do YOU like?

*Linked to: *Week­end WrapUp, *Eighteen25 Hal­loween Party, *Hal­loween Traditions