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Making goop is a great
scientific experiment. Kids are fascinated to see two ingredients that when
mixed together behave completely different than either one of them did by
itself.
Simple Goop Recipe
This goop recipe requires
only two ingredients. It’s perfect for younger children, since both
ingredients are non-toxic. No need to worry if some of it accidentally gets
ingested.
You’ll Need
Water
Cornstarch
Directions:
Mix the water and
cornstarch in a small shallow dish. The new product behaves both like the
liquid water and like the solid cornstarch. Ask kids to press their finger
in the mixture, or pour it into a second dish.
Goop Recipe
This goop recipe is a
little more involved than the first one and since it uses borax, you should
caution the kids to be careful when handling it.
You’ll Need:
1 tablespoon of white
craft glue
1 ½ teaspoons of borax
2 paper cups
water
Directions:
Pour the glue in one of
the paper cups. Add a tablespoon of water and stir until the two are mixed
well.
Mix the borax with four
tablespoons of water in the second paper cup. Add one tablespoon of this
mixture to the glue and water mixture in the first paper cup. If the glue
mixture doesn’t turn into a gel, add another tablespoon of the borax mixture
to it.
Take the gel out of the
paper cup and roll it with your hands until it firms up a little. The goop
is ready to play with.
For different colors of
goop, add a few drops of food coloring to the glue and water mixture before
adding the borax. Make sure the kids wash their hands when they are done
playing with the goop.
Encourage older kids to
describe which of the properties of goop seem more like a liquid and which
seem more like those of a solid. Start by having them look at the goop and
make predictions about how it will behave once they try to pour it, and
touch it. Let them get some “hands-on” experience with the goop (literally)
and observe how the goop actually behaves, which should be quite different
from what they expected after just looking at the mixture.
The borax goop experiment
is also a good exercise in following directions. The goop won’t turn out
right, if they do not follow the recipe exactly.
Give this a try. It may
get a little messy, but that’s what makes it fun and interesting for your
kids.
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