Oh, the places you will go…making oobleck to celebrate Dr. Seuss’s Birthday. You can even read the book Bartholomew and the Oobleck
Oobleck
How to make Oobleck
This stuff is amazing. My boys (okay and me too) were totally taken with this goo. Oobleck defies Newton’s third law of motion–for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. It is a science lesson that is a lot of fun! If you quickly smack it with your hand it immediately turns into a solid, instead of splashing or moving. If you slowly move it with your hands it reacts like a liquid. Cool! Needless to say, our oobleck took a lot of fist smacking! Our kitchen was filled with lots of “Wow,” “Cool,” wide eyes of amazement and much laughter!” Everybody had a handful (or two) of fun, and we even had some great conversation about science. “Is the oobleck solid? Is it a liquid? Is it a solid liquid?” Whipping up a batch of this stuff is a great way to learn while having lots of fun! Please read the comments on this post for the scientific explanation of what is happening.
Oobleck Recipe
Oobleck Recipe
You only need a few easy ingredients that you probably already have in your pantry to whip up this amazing concoction.
- 2 cups cornstarch
- 1 cup water
- food coloring (optional)
- To make your own oobleck mix 2 cups of cornstarch and 1 cup water in a bowl. If you want to color your oobleck like we did, add a few drops of food coloring to the water before adding to the cornstarch. It took some effort to mix the water and cornstarch. Try it out (hit it with your fist and pour it off a spoon to see if it works) before you give into the urge to add more water to make it easier to mix. We played with our science experiment all afternoon, and when the kids weren’t playing with it I covered it with plastic wrap.
How to Make Oobleck Video
Too Cool! Really, you must give it a try! Are your kids into the slime craze? Slime or Gak is another fun goo your kids will love. See how we make super safe slime, borax-free slime and don’t miss all these amazing slime recipes (who has ever heard of magnetic slime!)
Celebrate Dr. Seuss Birthday
How do you celebrate Dr. Seuss Birthday? Do you start the day off with green eggs and ham? Do you read your favorite Dr. Seuss book–or is it just too hard to choose only ONE favorite book?!?
Here are some great ideas from our readers:
“Oobleck is only one of the names for this crazy stuff. When I taught Preschool, I would make this with my class again and again. We called it MAGIC MUD. I would send the recipe home so that the parents could make it and the best part was that if it got on the carpet or clothes, you just let it dry completely and then sweep/vacuum or throw in the washer. I also used this with the very little ones ( 1-2 yr olds) since it was safe for them to put in their mouths.
It is also called QUICKSAND and all you do is make it a tad thinner and then do a lesson around how quicksand works in real life.” ~Robbin
“I read “Bartholomew and the Oobleck” and brought it to my son’s 2nd grade class. I do every year on Dr. Seuss day. It never gets old, the kids LOVE it. ~Laura
“I make this with my students every year for our final solids/liquids unit lesson.
Try mixing it in a heavy-duty Ziploc bag – it is easy to “smoosh” the bag, rather than mix the oobleck with a spoon. Also, add the water to the cornstarch slowly – if you go overboard, you will have a watery mess, rather than Oobleck!” ~Michelle
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