Flubber

My parents hosted the pastor's families for lunch yesterday and I was in charge of making the experience fun for the kids.  There was a 2 year old and seven kids between 7-12.  I needed activities that would work for a wide range of ages.

The kids had pizza for lunch.  I decided to have a cupcake station.  I made confetti cupcakes and then let the kids add their own vanilla or chocolate frosting and sprinkles.  They loved it!  We had movies playing and they played with the toys in the basement.  We also made candy bags for the kids to take home.

For something extra, I wanted to do a project with them.  I had added this to my Pinterest account a week or so ago and thought it would be fun and simple.

Yesterday, I completed my first project that I found on Pinterest!  Gak!

Flubber

Original Pin.  Recipe: Steve Spangler Science.

What You Need:

8 oz glue (Edit: Elmers glue works the best)

Borax

water

food color (optional)

bowl

teaspoon

measuring cup

What To Do:

• Gather materials - this is a quick process so having everything on hand is best.
• Pour 8oz of glue into a large bowl
• Fill the empty bottles with water & shake to help get all the glue out and pour the glue/water mixture into the bowl with the glue
• Mix well
• Add food color to your mixture (Optional) and continue mixing
• Add 1 teaspoon of Borax to 1/2 cup of warm water & mix
• Pour Borax mixture into your glue mixture a little at a time
• This forms quickly so once you see it has initially formed dig in and mix well with your hands, adding water as needed until you get the consistency you prefer.

Hints:

• When you first pour in the Borax mixture, it will instantly begin to turn into Gak. At this point, you start using your hands.  Keep adding water.  After a bit, I pulled mine out of the bowl so it wouldn't be as wet.

• At first, it will stick to your hands-a lot. Just keep kneading it. As it began to firm up, I would run my hands around the bowl to get any additional mixture I may have missed and add it to the "ball" I was working with.  After working it for a while, it looses it's stickiness and turn into a silly putty consistency.

• I cut the recipe in half (4oz of glue).  It mixed up much better when I didn't cut the water/Borax mixture.

• You can only mix so many colors, so (despite warnings) we had a little lesson in colors. But otherwise, the colors come out bright and fun! 

My mom is an amazing hostess.  She can decorate a table like no one's business. She chose a black and white theme for the table settings upstairs.