Ooblek-tastic!

If you have never heard of ooblek, whether young or old, run directly to your nearest supermarket (or your pantry) and pick up a box of cornstarch. All you need is cornstarch and water to create this fascinating goo. It is hard to describe this stuff besides theord goo. Depending on how you hold it it could be a fluid, chalky, or hard as a stone. The dynamically changing properties of his stuff makes it cool for all ages. I integrated ooblek this week since we have been focusing on the 5 senses. Last week the boys got to experience lots of different smells by investigating various spices for S week. (I lost those photos though when I dropped my iPhone in the toilet last week, hence my absence of late.)  We continued the connection to the senses by focusing on touch, taste, and textures for T week. First, I gave the boys color coded cups of substances. The first set was salt and sugar. They smelled each and felt them for textyre. I helped them verbalize their thoughts by providing words like grainy, rough, and sandy. Clearly though, one fared much better in the taste test! Next, I cleaned the cups and plates and filled them with cornstarch and powdered sugar. Again, the boys used their senses to decribe and compare the substances.

Then, it was time for the big Ooblek-tastic event! Considering that the boys didn’t like playing with Jell-O last week; I was skeptical about Clark especially even touching the ooblek. I set out the materials and built suspense by asking the boys what I should do with the green water (a drop of food coloring) and strange powder (cornstarch).

Of course, they wanted to mix them. At first they were quite apprehensive about the resulting mixture.

But with a little encouragement, they really dug in!

And for those neat freaks out there who are wondering how I could let my kids create such a mess, I assure you that it all comes off with a little water on a sponge. Extremely easy and fun!

I hope you give it a try! Let me know how it goes.