Here at Official Kids Mag, we believe you can never have enough slime, especially at Halloween. The slimier, the better! Making slime is actually chemistry… and playing with it is fun, fun, fun!
Ingredients
•Elmer’s glue (most kinds of white craft glue will work – try glitter glue for glitter slime or glow-in-the-dark glue for glowing slime)
• 2 disposable cups
• Food coloring—you pick the color – ghoulish green (yellow with a little green) or blood red are good for Halloween
• Water
• Borax Powder (available at most large grocery stores near the laundry detergent)
• A plastic spoon (for stirring)
• A tablespoon (for measuring)
Directions
1. Fill one small cup with water and add a spoonful of the Borax powder and stir it up. Then set it aside.
2. Fill the other small cup with about 1 inch of the glue.
3. Add three tablespoons of water to the glue and stir.
4. Add a few drops of the food coloring and stir it up until mixed.
5. Now the fun part (and the chemistry part)…add one tablespoon of the Borax solution you made earlier and stir well. Watch the slime form!
6. After it forms let it sit for about 30 seconds and then pull it off the spoon and play with it!
Tip: Keep your slime in a tightly closed plastic bag when you are not playing with it, and keep it away from carpets and your dog (who might think it’s food) and your little sister’s hair.
Add plastic spiders or plastic eyeballs for an extra creepy slimy mess!!
Slime Science
Now for the science behind the slime. The borate ions in the borax powder mix with the PVA (polyvinyl-acetate) glue to form a stretchy substance called a POLYMER. This is called cross-linking!
This POLYMER is cool because it has qualities of both a solid and a liquid. It can take the shape of its containers like a liquid does, yet you can hold it in your hand and pick it up like a solid. As you might know, solid molecules are tight together, liquid molecules spread out and break apart (drops). POLYMER molecules CHAIN themselves together (they can stretch and bend like chains) and that makes them special. Jell-O, rubber bands, plastic soda bottles, sneaker soles, even gum are all forms of polymers.
Once you’ve made the slime, try some experiments: How does temperature affect the stretchiness of it? How do the ingredients affect the texture? How long will it last if you leave it in a closed container versus an open container? If you make glow-in-the-dark slime, what types of light exposure (sunlight vs. artificial light) help it glow better?