WHEN SCIENCE AND FUN COLLIDE—SLIME-MAKING EVENT
Who has 80 thumbs and ready for some slimy, ooey-gooey, tactile fun? The 40 kids at Darlene’s Wee Care 4 Kids daycare. That’s who. On Thursday, June 24, 2021, science and fun collided at Darlene’s Wee Care 4 Kids daycare during a Slime-Making Event held for our Busy Bees, Reading Dolphins, and our Amazing Scholars.
I mean, who doesn’t like slime? For kids, it seems like the messier the better. The children at Darlene’s Wee Care 4 Kids daycare seem to have a particular love for slimy, gooey, sticky, weird-feeling mixtures. They aren’t alone. There’s a reason the toy industry creates things like Playdough, silly putty, gak, and what seems like a thousand different versions of slime. Slime is a fantastic tool for sensory play, as part of an anti-anxiety kit, and to develop fine motor skills and strength.
What happened?
The instructor, Ms. Dayona, took the simple ingredients below and created an educational yet fun experience for our kids.
Slime recipe/ingredients:
- (1) cup of cornstarch
- (1) 3 oz pack of Jell-O mix
- (1) 4 oz cup warm water
Educational? Yep, there’s a lot of science behind slime. I will not bore you with all the science, but during this event Ms. Dayona taught our kids…
Literacy/Vocabulary
- Use new vocabulary and phrases acquired in conversations and being read to.
- With prompting and support, clarify unknown words or phrases read aloud.
- The children learned that when you gather things to make something, what you are gathering is called “ingredients.”
- When identifying the ingredients, the children were asked what they thought the white powdery substance was. Some said it was baby powder or baking soda before Ms. Dayona informed them it was “cornstarch.”
- They discovered that when you put ingredients together; you make a “mixture.”
- Once the ingredients were mixed, the children said it felt “slimy, squishy, and gooey.”
[New vocabulary words: cornstarch, slimy, squishy, ingredients, recipe, mixture, stretchy, and gooey]
Math
- Measuring skills—describe and compare measurable attributes of length and weights of everyday objects.
- Use mathematical processes when measuring; representing, organizing, and understanding data.
- The children had to measure out the ingredients before they combined them all in their colored bowls. They made scientific guesses on what it needed more or less of to create the perfect consistency.
Science
- Think, analyze, and hypothesize.
- Take part in simple investigations about living and/or non-living things to answer a question or to test a prediction.
- Sort and describe objects according to size, shape, color, and texture.
- Notice changes in matter.
- Before they made the slime, the kids made a hypothesis about how they felt it would feel, look, and taste.
- The children said it smelled really good but tasted horrible! (Don’t worry! All the ingredients we used were safe and edible.)
- When water was added to the ingredients, the children noticed the slime went from powder to liquid, then solid.
Boooring? Not!
Don’t be fooled! It was not all science and education. The kids had a blast taking part in several slime competitions, like who could make the roundest ball? Who had the longest/stretchiest slime? Who could create the first letter of their name with slime? Congratulations to Alana Vernon and Ryon Harris! They both received a certificate and a prize.
If you think making slime was boring, check out this slide presentation and see what happens when science and fun collide….
Yes, when science and fun collided at Darlene’s Wee Care 4 Kids Daycare, everyone had a slimy, ooey-gooey, and enjoyable tactile time!
Special thanks to…
- Ms. April and the rest of the hardworking teachers that contributed to the smooth functioning of the event.
- Ms. April, Ms. Danita and Ms. Dayona, for taking the pictures.
- Sandra Hicks, our Event Planner, for the video and planning and organizing all the logistics for this event.
