Air Dry Mud Clay Details

Recommended Age Range: Kindergarten, Elementary
Time Required: about 30 minutes
Difficulty: Easy
Cost: Less than $3 in used supplies

Materials

• 1 cup baking soda
• 1 cup corn starch
• 1/2 cup coffee grounds or instant coffee crystals (The instant crystals give a more uniform color, but are more likely to stain hands, clothes, and surfaces. This tutorial shows instant coffee, but you can see the result using ground coffee at the end of this post. Note that even though it looks grainy when wet, it hardens a solid color.)
• 1.5 cups water

Supplies

• 1 cup measuring cup
• 1/2 cup measuring cup
• pot for heating on stove (note that I ended up using a slightly larger pot than shown in the picture above)
• spoon for stirring
• measuring glass
• stove

Instructions

1. Measure 1 and a half cups warm water.
   
2. Pour the water into a pot.
   
3. Measure a half cup of instant coffee crystals or coffee grounds.
   
4. Pour the coffee into the water.
   
5. Stir the coffee into the water.
   
6. Measure a cup of baking soda.
   
7. Pour baking soda into coffee mixture.
   
8. Stir the baking soda into the coffee mixture.
   
9. Measure 1 cup cornstarch.
   
10. Pour cornstarch into pot with baking soda coffee mixture and stir.
    
11. Heat on the stove using low heat.
    
12. Stir frequently while it heats. This should take about 10 to 15 minutes.
    
13. Once it gets about as thick as mashed potatoes, remove it from the heat.
    
14. Use a spoon to pour the hot clay onto a plate to cool.
    
15. Once it is cool, shape as desire.
    
    

The clay will harden overnight. Note especially if you are using the instant coffee crystals instead of the coffee grounds, this will color your hands a bit as you use it, but it will wash right off. We did not get any clay on clothes thankfully, but I imagine it would stain as badly as a coffee stain on clothes.

Have fun with your homemade air dry mud clay!

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It took a little experimenting to find the ratio of water to glue to borax that provided maximum enjoyment. Commercial Floam is a lot more styrofoam than slime, but we had trouble getting it to hold together when we tried this consistency. Ultimately, we used a lot of thick, moldable slime in our mixture. However, my family definitely considered what we ended up with a success. A few of the styrofoam balls popped out as they were playing, but overall it held together well. It might be different than commercial Floam, but it was still addicting.

When the rest of my family got home from skiing, they couldn’t keep their hands off of it. Even my hubby had fun making geometric shapes. (Note, they slowly melted into a puddle over several minutes.)

What made me the most happy was that many hours later, at bedtime, my hubby pointed out that our youngest had slipped back over to the counter to play with it some more. He eventually buried all his action figures in it, but it was so NOT sticky that it was easy to get them clean.

We ended up throwing our homemade floam away after a few days, because after it got left out overnight, the slime consistency became too unmoldable due to evaporation. I imagine if you stored it in a sealed container, it would last a lot longer.

Homemade Floam

Recommended Age Range: Preschool, Kindergarten, Elementary
Time Required: ~10 minutes (plus about 15 minutes to wait for it to set)
Difficulty: Easy
Cost: About $2 if you buy a large container of glue.

Materials

• 1/2 cup of Elmer’s Glue-All Multipurpose Glue (Washable won’t work right)
• 2 teaspoons borax (Note: as with soap, baking soda, salt, etc., this could be dangerous if ingested in large quantities)
• water — you will ultimately add 3/4 cup (6 ounces) to the glue and 1/2 cup (4 ounces) to the borax
• food coloring
• foam beads (we found ours at the dollar store, but you could also grate styrofoam).

Supplies

• measuring glass
• tablespoon
• teaspoon
• spoon for stirring
• cup for holding borax solution
• ziploc bag

Instructions

1. Measure 1/2 cup (4 ounces) of water in the measuring glass. The water should either be as hot as possible from the tap or you can heat it. I heated ours in the microwave for 30 seconds.
   
2. Add 2 teaspoons of borax to the hot water.
   
3. Stir the mixture.
   
4. Pour the mixture into another container so you can reuse the measuring glass.
   
5. Measure 3/4 cup (6 ounces) of warm water.
   
6. Add 1/2 cup (4 ounces) of Elmer’s glue to the water. I added the glue until the line of the combined mixture was 1 and 1/4 cup.
   
7. Stir the water and glue mixture until smooth.
   
8. Add food coloring to the water and glue mixture. I added 6 drops.
   
9. Pour the foam beads into the gallon size ziploc bag. Our bag from the dollar store contained 2 cups of foam beads.
   
10. Add the water and glue mixture to the ziploc bag.
    
11. Add 5 Tbsp of the borax and water mixture to the ziploc bag.
    
12. Seal the ziploc bag.
    
13. Mix thoroughly with your hands.
    
14. Wait 15 minutes for the slime to set.
    

Have fun playing with your homemade floam!

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What’s the difference? In my opinion, silly putty should be moldable. If I want to make a creature out of silly putty, I can. With this stuff, no matter how thick I make it, you just can’t. Therefore, I went in the other direction. I wanted to know how runny I could make it without having it be too sticky. I tried different ratios of glue, water, and borax and combined them in different ways until we were finally satisfied. (If you’re worried your child might try eating the gak, this recipe probably isn’t for you. However, you would have to eat a lot to actually get sick, so for most kids, this recipe is totally fine.)

The final substance was slimy, but not sticky. Moldable, but still runny. You can form it into a ball, and then watch as it runs through your fingers.

My 4 year old daughter has literally played with this stuff for hours. She’s my kid that likes to get messy and even though this homemade gak doesn’t leave a mess, she never gets tired of it.

In case you’re wondering, you can NOT replace the recommended Elmer’s glue with washable glue. We had a small bottle of washable glue and decided to try it to see what would happen. The consistency is just all wrong.

See below for step-by-step instructions for making a single batch as well as advice for doing this activity with a large group of kids.

Recommended Age Range: Preschool, Kindergarten, Elementary
Time Required: ~15 minutes
Difficulty: Easy
Cost: About $0.50 a batch if you buy a large container of glue.

Materials:

• 4 ounces of Elmer’s Glue-All Multi-Purpose Glue (Washable won’t work right)
• 1 teaspoon borax (Note: as with soap, baking soda, salt, etc., this could be dangerous if ingested in large quantities)
• water (you will ultimately add 6 to 8 ounces depending on how runny you want the final product to be)
• food coloring

Supplies & Tools:

• disposable cup
• spoon for stirring
• teaspoon
• measuring glass
• marker

Instructions:

1. 1. You could theoretically, pour the glue into your measuring cup, then use a spatula to pour the glue into a cup. However, you can use this trick to keep your measuring glass clean. First, measure 4 ounces water. (This is the same as 1/2 cup.)

1. 1. Next pour the water into your disposable cup and use your marker to mark the water line.

1. 1. Dump out the water, then refill the cup to the line with glue.

1. 1. Next, pour 4 to 6 ounces water in with the glue. Less water makes a more firm gak, but the runnier (6 ounce) gak was more fun to my kids.

1. 1. Add some food coloring to the water glue/mixture and stir. We added about 8 drops, but you can add more or less depending on your preference. Stir until it is well mixed.

1. 1. Separately, mix 1 teaspoon of borax with 2 ounces (or a 1/4 cup) of hot water. Stir until as much is dissolved as possible. It is not necessary to boil the water first. A few undissolved grains will not noticeably affect the texture.

1. 1. Add the borax/water mixture to the glue/water/food coloring mixture, then stir. It seems to work best if you add a little borax/water, stir, then repeat 2 or 3 times until it’s all gone. However, if you add it all at once, it’ll still work out okay. You just might need to stir for a little longer.

1. 1. As you stir, it should start out by sticking to the spoon. Keep stirring.

1. 1. Is there liquid left? Keep stirring! This is where I failed the first few times. I gave up while there was still liquid in my cup. If you stir long enough, it should all turn into gak. Don’t worry, it shouldn’t take more than a couple minutes.

1. 1. Take it out of the cup and enjoy your perfect homemade gak!

Even though you can’t mold it very well, it is great for leaving impressions. You can also stretch it, break it, and let it run through your fingers. It is so satisfying!

Instructions for Large Group
If you plan to make this recipe with several kids, there are a few things you could do to simplify the process:

• • First, you could pre-mark all the cups to the glue fill line. When I did this with my kids, I got lucky in that the fill line corresponded to the bottom of the grooves in the cup, so I didn’t even need to mark them.
  • You can personalize the recipes by allowing kids to choose the colors to add to their cup.
  • After you’ve added the glue, water, and food coloring to the cups, each child can stir their own cup.

• To save time, you can make the borax mixture in a large batch. Multiply the number of children by 2 to get the ounces of water you should use. Add a teaspoon of borax for each child. For example, with my 3 kids, I mixed 3 teaspoons borax into 6 ounces of hot water. I microwaved the water before adding the borax so that as much borax would be dissolved as possible. I didn’t want to risk having too many grains settling to the bottom, leaving some kid’s cups with not enough borax.
• You could measure out 2 ounces of borax mixture for each child OR you can just add a little bit at a time to each kids cup until it all turns to gak. To save time, I opted to go the second route, but one of my kid’s cups did not get as thick as the others. Next time, I will likely make a little extra of the borax solution to make sure everyone gets enough.

Even though my oldest child’s gak was the runniest and stickiest, all my kids probably had the most fun playing with his. If you wanted to make sure no kid ends up with gak this sticky however, I would probably start off by adding only 4 or 5 ounces instead of 6 ounces of water to each cup. I would also make sure to have a little extra of the borax solution on hand in case any of the batches turned out like this.

If you still have an extra sticky batch, it’s not really a big deal. Somehow I got some on my clothes and it washed out easily. Kids might just have to wash their hands after playing with it.

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This recipe comes from The Toddler’s Busy Book by Trish Kuffner. Unfortunately, it does need to be heated on the stove for a few minutes and then allowed to cool, but the extra time spent in preparation is worth it to me since I need to make new play dough so rarely. My oldest was never very into play dough. Even today when I asked him if he wanted to help mix the play dough he insisted on using a rolling pin rather than his hands. However, my 3 year old could play with this stuff for HOURS. We still buy her some store bought Play-Doh for her birthday and Christmas, because she loves all the colors, but it all ends up mixed together in the end anyway.

Recommended Age Range: Preschool, Kindergarten, Elementary

Time Required: ~1 hour (most of which is letting it cool before mixing)
Difficulty: Easy
Cost: Less than $1 per 2 cup batch.

Materials:

• 1 cup water
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 1/2 cup salt
• 1 tablespoon cream of tartar
• food coloring (I used about 15 drops per batch)
• 1 cup flour

Supplies & Tools:

• saucepan
• measuring cups
• tablespoon
• measuring glass (for water)

Instructions:

1. Mix together the water, oil, salt, cream of tartar, and food coloring in the saucepan. (Everything except the flour.)
2. Heat on the stove until most of the salt has dissolved.
3. Stir in the flour with a spoon, then wait for it to cool a bit before kneading with your hands to get it smooth.
4. Store the play dough in a Ziploc bag or other airtight container. It does not need to be refrigerated.

HAVE FUN!

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Going by many other names (magic mud, gloop, ooze, goop) this mixture of cornstarch and water is thoroughly mystifying and endlessly entertaining. My 3 year old and I could seriously play with this stuff for hours. My 5 year old was a little more hesitant to touch it after reading Dr. Seuss’s cautionary tale, but he eventually caved and enjoyed himself as well (which was actually nothing short of a miracle given how little this kid enjoys getting his hands dirty).

What makes oobleck so amazing? It’s a little hard to explain. You’re really going to have to make it yourself to get the full effect, but try to imagine this. You have a substance that is a liquid. It runs through your fingers. You can pour it from one container to another. Items placed on the surface sink quickly to the bottom.

Except…it’s not exactly a liquid. If you grab it, you can pick up a solid chunk (until moments later when it oozes out of your hand). If you smack it, it turns completely rigid at the moment of impact (though your kids will still prepare for the splash). If you punch it, your hand bounces off the surface. If you place your hand in it, then try to pull it out quickly, you’re stuck. I imagine this is why someone thought to name this enjoyable substance in honor of Dr. Seuss’s oobleck.

My kids and I discovered another cool feature while playing with oobleck. When my daughter tipped her pie tin full of oobleck, a big puddle poured out all over the counter. I quickly ran to grab a roll of paper towels to sop it up, but then I remembered oobleck’s ability to behave like a solid. She and I were able to grab handfuls of the puddle and stick it back in her pie tin, leaving the counter completely clean.

So, what is it? A solid? A liquid? I don’t recommend turning this fun experiment into a science lesson against anyone’s will, but if someone is curious, oobleck is a non-Newtonian fluid (so are other materials such as ketchup and quicksand) . Basically, all fluids have a property called viscosity which is a measure of the fluid’s “thickness”. For example, honey has a higher viscosity than water. For many liquids, the viscosity may be dependent on temperature (like the way honey is thicker when it’s cold), but the viscosity does not depend on pressure.

For non-Newtonian fluids, like oobleck, the viscosity is dependent on the applied pressure or shearing forces. When there are no stresses within the material, oobleck flows easily, like water. However, when external forces are applied, such as by smacking the surface or stirring it quickly, the viscosity increases dramatically. Oobleck is simply a suspension of cornstarch in water. Under ordinary circumstances, the water in the oobleck lubricates the cornstarch allowing it to flow. The best explanation I’ve found for why it behaves the way it does is that when pressure is applied quickly, the water molecules are squeezed out from between the cornstarch particles, causing the substance to become rigid.

If you’re anyone ranging from a toddler who can be trusted not to ingest random substances to a 50-something year old bachelor with grandkids (hi, Dad), I think you’ll enjoy this activity. I’m not kidding when I say that I could spend hours just running my fingers through it. It’s THAT fascinating. My kids had fun playing with their cars and toy dinosaurs in it and pretending it was quicksand.

I’ve even heard of people filling kiddie pools with it and walking on top (remember, if you walk quickly enough, you won’t sink), but that would take some serious dedication. I should point out that you don’t want too much of this stuff to go into your plumbing. We simply waited a few hours until some water had evaporated and it was completely solid, then threw ours in the trash can (though you could always save it and revive it later with a little water).

Amazon Product Page (Affiliate Link)

I recommend checking out Dr. Seuss’s book from the library (as nearly every library is sure to have a copy), but if you’re interested in purchasing, please consider using this Amazon affiliate link to buy Bartholomew and the Oobleck at no extra cost to you. It really is a wonderful book that teaches the lesson of appreciating what you have instead of always yearning for something more. My 5 year old loves it (even though it did make him extra wary of this activity).

Recommended Age Range: Preschool, Kindergarten
Time Required: ~5 minutes (plus endless playtime)
Difficulty: Easy
Cost: Less than $1 in used supplies for each child

Materials:

• cornstarch (we used 2 cups per kid)
• water (we used 1 cup per kid, but you might need slightly more)

Supplies & Tools:

• bowl or pie tin
• measuring cup
• spoon (optional, can just use hands)
• food coloring (optional, could also use Kool-Aid or all natural dye)

Instructions:

1. First place 2 cups of cornstarch in your bowl or pie tin.
2. If you want your oobleck to be colored, I recommend adding the coloring to the water.



3. Add 1 cup water to your cornstarch.



4. Mix the water and cornstarch together. You could try to use a spoon, but I recommend using your hands.



5. If needed, add a little more water. I’ve heard that some people use more, but we found 2 cups cornstarch and 1 cup water to work well. We were definitely able to get the solid properties while still having a material that flowed well.

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