Little Scientists: Slime

By far, this was the messiest program ever! But it was the easiest cleanup:-) We used disposable everything- tins, spoons, etc. We just rolled up the tablecloth at the end and tossed it in the trash.

We read stories about slimey things.

Intro: Bread & Butter

Sign: Wet

Book: The Wide-Mouthed Frog by Keith Faulkner

Fingerplay- I Had a Little Turtle

I have a little turtle,
He lives inside a box.
He swims in the puddles
And he climbs on the rocks.

He snapped at a minnow
He snapped at a flea
He snapped at a mosquito
And he snapped at me.

He caught the minnow,
He caught the flea,
He caught the mosquito,
But he didn't catch me!

Flannel Board: Five Little Turtles (I just used the Ellison machine to make felt turtles and gave them google eyes.)

One baby turtle alone and new.
Finds a friend, and then there are two.

Two baby turtles crawl down to the sea.
They find another, and then there are three.

Three baby turtles crawl along the shore.
They find another, and then there are four.

Four baby turtles go for a dive.
Up swims another, and then there are five.

Song: Froggie Song (with puppets)

"Gonk, gonk" went the little Mr. Froggy.
"Gonk, gonk" went the lady froggy, too.
"Gonk, gonk" went them both together.
And their eyes went WOO, WOO, WOO!
And they kissed each other, (kiss, kiss)
Just like little froggies do.
And he said, "Good-bye!"
And she said, "Oh, my!"
"Wait! I'm coming, too!"

Book: For Pete’s Sake by Ellen Stoll Walsh

 Now to the making of the slime! 

I had this book on display and explained to the children that some books are stories and some books teach us how to do things.  This book taught me how to make slime so that I can teach you but they were going to need some grown up help.

Ingredients:

 

 

1/2 cup of water  (with eight drops of food coloring of your choice- I used green)

1 cup of cornstarch

Instructions:

Pour the water (with food coloring) into a pan.  Slowly add the cornstarch a little bit at a time to the water and stir. If you add it all at the same time, it will be too difficult to stir.  You have made slime when it becomes difficult to stir in the cornstarch.

(It took a while to add the cornstarch to the green water, so some of the kids were getting a little impatient.)

Here's what happens:

Water and cornstarch don’t mix completely. The slime is mostly tight packed bits of cornstarch and the water flows around those bits. When your hand moves slowly through the slime, the cornstarch moves around.

By the time we had made the slime, some of the children just didn't want to touch it! I don't know whether it was an odd consistency for them or what. 

All in all- I would say that the adults enjoyed the slime just as much as the kids:-)