Making slime is always a popular science experiment, and something you can do with very few ingredients. All you will need is glue (eg. PVA, Clag) and borax, which can be found in the laundry aisle at the supermarket. Please note: Borax in poisonous and you should always wash your hands after handling it, or slime made with it.
What you need:
- 1/2 cup glue
- 1/2 cup cold water
- 1 tablespoon borax
- 1 cup boiling/hot water
- food dye (optional)
What to do:
- Put half a cup of glue in a bowl with half a cup of cold water. Mix together.
- Add a few drops of food dye (optional).
- In a jug, dissolve 1 tablespoon of borax in 1 cup of boiling water and stir until it is all dissolved.
- Add the borax mixture to the glue. Mix together.
- A blob of slime will form in the water. Remove the blob from the water and knead it until the slime becomes gooey and less sticky. Your slime will be different depending on the type of glue you use. For example, PVA glue creates slime that it more solid. It can be easily rolled and bounced like a ball, whereas Clag is softer.
- You can store your slime in a zip lock bag. It will dry out if left exposed to air, but it will wash out of clothes if it gets stuck.
WARNING: This cannot be eaten. Wash your hands after your handle it.
There are a range of things you can do with your slime. It may look different depending on whether you use white or clear glue. See what happens when you:
- roll it into a ball and drop it on the table
- roll it into a ball, put it down and leave it for a while
- roll it into a ball and slowly push a pencil in it
- roll it into a ball and hit it quickly with a pencil
- roll in into a sausage and stretch it very quickly
- roll it into a sausage and stretch it very slowly.
What happens:
Glue is a polymer – this means it is made up of long chains of a molecule. The chemicals in the borax link together with the glue, making a huge molecule, which doesn’t move very easily. This turns the glue into slime.