Rainbow Sparkle Slime

Who doesn’t like glitter slime? Seriously. How could your child not absolutely love it? It sparkles, it stretches and it’s so much science-y fun.

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Learning and Development

Slime recipes are perfect for little learners. Why? Not only are they completely cool to play with, but they also include plenty of educational aspects. Yep, I said educational. So, what can your child learn and how can she develop?

·        Science: Sensory exploration (sense of touch), states of matter, exploring light and scientific inquiry (making predictions, observing/collecting data and analyzing data)

·        Math: Making measurement

·        Art: Colors

·        Building fine motor skills

Materials for the Slime Recipe

Here’s what you’ll need:

·        ¼ cup of clear Elmer’s glue

·        ¼ cup Liquid starch

·        ¼ cup of water

·        Fine glitter in a rainbow of colors

To make more of the slimy stuff, use more of each ingredient. Keep them in the same proportions.

How-To Steps

Before starting, keep in mind that this is NOT a taste-safe recipe. If your child tends to put things in her mouth or tries to eat non-edible items, this is not for her. Always supervise your child at all times and never allow her to put any of the ingredients or the finished product in or near her mouth.

Now that you’re ready to begin, ask your child to predict what will happen when you mix the ingredients together. Write down her predictions and compare them to what really happens. As the two of you go through this recipe your child can observe what’s happening to the ingredients, telling you what she thinks is going on.

1. Measure the ingredients.

2. Mix the glue and the water together.

3. Add in the liquid starch, blending it in until the mix gels. If it’s too watery, add a tiny bit more of the liquid starch.

 

4. Separate the slime into piles.

5. Pour a different color of glitter onto each pile.

 

6. Spread the sparkles throughout each slime pile. Your child can use her hands to twist, mush and mash the glittery stuff in.

 

Play Time

Now that your child has several different colors of glitter slime, it’s time to play. She can keep the hues separate or start blending them together. Try holding the stretchy, sparkly stuff up to the light. Your kiddo can move it around, exploring how the lights reflects off of it and makes the colors change.

Are you looking for more super slime ideas? Check these out!

Sensory Feather Slime

Disco Slime

Solar System Slime

Ocean Slime

 

 

6 New Year's Eve Activities that the Kids Will Absolutely Adore!

New Year’s kids’ activities anyone? Um, yes please! You’re celebrating “Noon Year’s Eve” at, well – noon. Or, maybe you have your fave families coming over for an evening get together. Whatever your plans are, having plenty of arts and crafts (along with some tasty treats, of course) on hand is a must-do.

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Before going crazy with crafts, start simple. You have plenty to do around the holidays. So, why add to it with complicated art projects or overly complex recipes? Yeah, yeah, Pinterest is bursting with an over-abundance of seemingly awesome ideas. You scroll down your feed and think, “Well, I could do that.” Maybe. But, keep in mind, the middle of your New Year’s Eve celebration isn’t the time to find out that what looked oh-so-easy on Pinterest (and, don’t they all?) was actually super-complicated.

Pour the Paint

 

Okay, so if you want something beyond simple to keep the kids busy (and keep them totally happy too!) put out some paints. Is it mess-free? Nope. But, all you really need are four colors – the primaries (red, yellow and blue) and white. They can mix their own hues and then paint a holiday masterpiece. Add in some glitter (yes, this multiplies the mess exponentially) for a festive sparkle.

Try Clay Play

 

If your goal is to keep the mess to a minimum, one of my favorite kids’ art activities is finger painting with clay. The secret for this one is that there’s no actual finger paint involved. Instead, your kiddo can pull apart soft modeling clay into dime-sized pieces. She can then spread it out over a cardboard surface, finger paint style. It’s a fab fine motor activity and you can adapt it for any occasion. Have your child use the clay to make New Year’s fireworks or just make abstract art.

Confetti Art

 

Let’s say you have tons of magazines hanging out in the basement, garage or attic. Maybe you don’t. But, given that Christmas and Hanukkah were just last week, you might have some extra gift wrap odds and ends stashed around. Cut those up and use as confetti. The kids can paint a piece of card stock paper with clear-drying school glue. Toss the confetti, and watch it stick. Yay!

Glitter Ball Drop

 

10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1! The ball’s dropping in NYC, and at home too. Make your own with some sparkling playdough. Follow this recipe to whip up some DIY dough. Add a drop of food coloring in or don’t (the glitter will create a cool color). Sprinkle tons and tons and tons of glitter in (hey, it has to sparkle like the Times Square ball, right?) and mush it around. Your child can make the midnight drop ball and then take it apart for more playdough fun.

Glitter Gunk

 

As if playdough isn’t fun enough, try some New Year’s glitter slime! Follow these directions to mix up a batch of slime. Add in the sparkles and you’re ready for some festive science fun. The more glitter your kids use, the more solid the color will look.

Kids’ Cookies

 

When the kids tire from the crafting, try these easy no-bake cookies (here's the recipe). They’re sparkly (like the glitter) and look like mini New Year’s Eve balls. Oh yeah, and they’re super tasty too!

10 Kids' Ice Art and Science Activities

It’s summer. It’s hot. And, there’s a major heat wave. It’s 90 + degrees outside, and the kids are (understandably) complaining, “Mommmmmmmmy, it’s hot in here!” This is where kids’ ice art and science activities come into play.

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Yes, heading to the pool is totally ideal on one of these sweltering days. The mercury is up and cooling off in a big vat of chlorinated water with a few hundred other completely uncomfortable kids is on the agenda. Or, is it? You’d rather not spend an hour packing the pool bag, getting swim diapers on, slathering on the sunscreen, putting on new swim diapers, putting on more sunscreen and driving to the pool (only to find that the closest parking space is a good 15 minute walk – in the extreme heat – away). But, you still want to do something fun.

Okay. So, get out the ice. Actually, it’s technically not as simple as that. You’ll want to do some prep work beforehand. So, when you hear the weather person on the local news trying to freak just about everyone out about the upcoming dome of high heat that will ultimately blanket your part of the country, start making the ice!

These kids’ ice art and science activities all involve colorful and/or glittery cubes. All you need to do is drip a drop or two of food coloring into an ice cubes tray, add water and freeze. In some cases, you’ll also need to add a sprinkle of glitter or another ingredient (it’s all in the activity list). You can make the ice the night before or really anytime ahead of the activity day. As long as you have room in your freezer, you can stash the cubes for future use.

 

Just in case you forget to freeze a tray of colorful water (and when would any of us ever forget anything? – said with heavy sarcasm), you can take a short cut. Toss a few regular clear ice cubes (if you didn’t make them ahead, you can buy a bag of ice at the grocery store or convenience store) in a bowl, add a few drops of food coloring and stir. Don’t use a bowl that you absolutely love. Chances are the food coloring will stain it. Make a few batches, with different colors.

But, if you did happen to pre-freeze your cubes, here are a few fun options to keep cool during a heat wave:

Water and oil ice: Explore what freezes and what doesn’t. When the kiddos are done with the science part, use these to make abstract art prints.

 

Abstract art: Want to do some more abstract painting? This icy experiment gives the kids just that.

 

Frozen glitter cubes: They’re cold, they’re blue and they’re filled with sparkles. Paint with them, watch them melt or add some glue to catch the glitter.

 

Red, white and blue chalk cubes: This one goes beyond the basic food coloring and water recipe. Add some crushed chalk for a totally different experience.

 

Chalk ice: Another sidewalk chalk plus water plus a freezer art and science activity.

 

Rainbow race: Make a rainbow of colorful cubes, and then race them on a super-hot day.

Primary color mix: Take the ice outside, add some colorful water and mix the colors.

 

Glowing ice: Yes, really. It glows in the dark.

 

Striped icy science: Create stripes and layers of colors in ice. How? Read on to find out!

 

Building blocks: Take these melty blocks outside to build a massive chilly tower (or whatever else your child wants).

 

 

 

33 Messy Art Activities for Kids

Messy art! What kid doesn’t love, love, love it? Okay, so I know not every child wants to slather herself in tempera paint or cake clay over her nails. Some children are sensitive to the sensory aspect of these types of activities and don’t want anything to do with them. That’s alright. If your child isn’t into crazy goopy gooey process explorations, there’s no rule saying she must try it.

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Summer after summer I taught a children’s art camp called ‘Make a Mess’. It was wildly popular. Why? Plenty of the parents who I spoke to admitted that they really, truly wanted their children to experience intense process activities that involved splatters, squishes and more. But, they also didn’t want the mess at home. I can understand. We still have tempera caked on our dining room walls from a balloon paint experiment gone wrong (I’ll admit it, this was totally my fault – you should never, ever pop a paint-covered balloon that is still wet).

Let’s say you’re ready for the mess. What kinds of kids’ art activities should you put on the afternoon play agenda?

There’s basically a buffer of options. So much so that you can ready about our ‘art buffet’ here. If you want more (or the kids are begging for more), I’ll suggest combining a few materials into a multi-media artwork extraordinaire. Use tempera paints, modeling clay (your child can stretch it and even ‘finger paint’ with it), chalk, oil pastels, crayons, glue, glitter, fabric, paper scraps and anything else you happen to have on hand.

I’m a fan of color mixing, and add it into almost every art activity. Make a mess and pour quarter-sized pools of paint on a piece of wax paper. Let your little artist drip, drop, swirl and blend the colors together onto a piece of paper with he hands.

Still want more? Of course you do – and so does your child. Here are a few of my favorite messy art activities!

1. Mud painting (yep, it’s just like it sounds) from Clare’s Little Tots.

 

2. Buggy and Buddy painted with yarn in this process art activity.

 

3. Take your toddler outside for some canvas (and possibly body) painting like Arts & Crackers did!

4. Paint print with real flowers from Here Comes the Girls.

 

5. Kidz Activities made melting crayon art.

6. Mix colors with frozen ooblek, from Learning and Exploring through Play.

 

7. Messy Little Monster painted, but with water pistols!

 

8. Try Mess for Less’s bubble wrap stomp painting. Your kids will thank you.

9. Is it raining? Kitchen Floor Crafts made this watercolor in the rain art.

 

10. Picklebums did finger painting with extras – like potato mashers, cardboard and forks.

11. Rainy Day Mum combined art and science into one baking soda painting activity.

12. Paint with a cork like Best Toys 4 Toddlers suggests.

13. Getting moving with Something 2 Offer’s Jackson Pollock action painting.

14. School Time Snippets painted with bouncy balls. Really!

 

15. Learn with Play at Home made squirty foaming paint.

16. Our Whimsical Days smashed eggs (plastic ones) in this splatter paint activity.

17. Squirt, drip and pour with Cutting Tiny Bites process art.

18. Get super-messy with Mosswood Connection’s balloon painting.

19. EZE Breezy made 3 ingredient puffy paint!

 

20. Or, make puff paint clouds like Schooling a Monkey did.

21. Get sparkling with School Time Snippet’s shiny materials collage.

 

22. Try Our Whimsical Days’ fly swatter painting.

23. Get messy while getting clean with Messy Little Monster’s homemade bath paints.

24. Learning and Explore through Play painted on foil.

 

25. Paint with dinosaurs with Clare’s Little Tots idea.

 

26. Make a tape resist that also doubles as a splatter painting, like Buggy and Buddy did.

27. Make a mega artwork outside with Here Comes the Girls giant painting.

Or try some of our favorite MESSY ART ideas

28. Finger paint with sand.

29. Finger paint with clay.

30. Make shaving cream paint with glitter too.

31. Create frozen art with ice cubes.

32. Reuse an old fruit container to make a shaker painting.

33. Turn shaving cream into a Monet-style work of art.

 

Kids' Solar System Slime Science and Art Activity

Solar system slime anyone? Combine science and art into one stellar (pun completely intended) sensory activity for kids! How?

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I’m a huge fan of making slime. Mostly, because my 14-year-old actually still thinks it’s kind of cool. And, kind of is good enough for me. But, when he was younger he thought it was really, really, really cool. So, if you have a preschooler or a child in the early elementary school years (or a teen who still thinks this activity isn’t totally boring), keep reading.

Playing with the planets is hardly something that your child will do at school. That said, if you want to go a step beyond the good old foam ball planetary model, why not whip up a batch of the ooey gooey stuff? The first try with this recipe was a total fail. I wanted a dark color, so I added black tempera paint. And, that got everywhere. Unless you want paint-covered finger prints all over your house, I don’t recommend it. The next try was much more successful. Instead of paint (or food coloring, which I’ve used with some success before) I tried black glitter. Perfect! It created a glowing galaxy color that stayed completely on the slime (the glue grabs it and really holds the sparkles on).

You can use this kids’ activity to learn the planets in our solar system or get creative and have your child make up his own celestial bodies – sculpting his own imaginatively colorful planets that he then names and describes as part of the project.

Along with the science (exploring planets) and art (sculpting) parts, this is also an easy sensory activity. Throwing the clay planets into the mix makes the slimy stuff bumpy and lumpy, adding to the tactile nature of it.

Before beginning, ask your child a few open-ended questions, such as:

·        What do you think will happen when we add the ingredients together?

·        What do you think will happen when we mix the glitter in?

·        How can we turn the slime into the solar system?

·        What do you think the mixture will feel like?

If you’ve got a child who likes to eat everything in front of him or constantly puts non-food items in his mouth, hold off on doing this activity. The recipe is not taste safe and should never be eaten.

Here’s What You’ll Need:

·        1/3 cup of water

·        1/3 cup of clear school glue (Use clear, not white clear-drying glue – the white makes it a challenge to get something more than a gray color)

·        1/3 cup of liquid starch

·        Fine black glitter (avoid thick glitter, as it won’t spread as well)

·        Modeling clay

Here’s What to Do:

1. Mix the water and glue. If you want to make a bigger batch, use more of each ingredient (in the same proportions).

2. Add in the liquid starch. As your child pours it in and mix, the slime will start forming.

3. Fold in the glitter. Start with ¼ cup of sparkles, mixing and mashing it through the solar system slime. Add more as needed, until it becomes a dark color.

 

4. Roll the clay into balls to make planets. Your child can use colors that match the planets (such as green and blue for the Earth) or create his own imaginative options. Make the planets bouncy ball size or smaller (if your child wants, he can size them to scale for our solar system). Your child can add colorful glitter to the planets for an extra-special shine.

5. Drop the planets into the slime.

Now it’s time to play! Your child can stretch the mix, roll the planets through the galaxy, twirl it, swirl it or experiment with how it moves.

Are you looking for more science and slime kids’ activities? Try these recipes:

Feathers

 

Glitter

 

Alien

 

Patriotic

 

Follow my Pinterest board for ideas!