Gloop/Oobleck - Messy Fun!

This is such an easy, cheap activity that the kids absolutely love - the tidying up can take a bit longer but it's worth it! Don't make the same mistake as me the first time I did this years ago and set it up in a carpeted room with the kids on fabric-covered chairs!! It's a garden activity in the tuff tray these days!

Gloop, also known as Oobleck, is the strangest stuff - it's 2 parts cornflour to 1 part water (add a bit more cornflour if too runny, a bit more water if not runny enough) and it's a liquid but as soon as you try to scoop it up it turns into a solid. The children can be involved with the whole process - measuring out & pouring in the cornflour, working out how much water to use if they only need half as much (sneak in a bit of Maths there 😉) and mixing up the ingredients with their fingers.

   

My two spent ages just picking up balls of it then watching it run through their fingers when they released the pressure, discussing how it felt. They were really interested in the science of it too. Here it is in case you or your little ones want to know - 

The Science
Gloop acts as both a solid and a liquid. Cornflour is made of long, stringy particles that spread out and float around in water rather than dissolving. When stirred slowly the particles can pass each other and act as a liquid. But if you grab or hit the gloop (with a spoon for example, I'm not suggesting you should punch it!😏), the water flows out of the way and the large cornflour particles are all left bunched together, making a solid. This is known as a non-Newtonian fluid.

      

Ollie & Phoebe tried out different ideas such as pressing sand shapes into it, seeing how big a ball they could make before letting it dribble through their fingers again and scooping it with spoons. After a while they asked if they could add food colouring so out came the colours and pipettes. Other ideas you could try are pouring it into a colander or adding some hard plastic animals or dinosaurs - what happens to the runny gloop when the dinosaurs stomp on it? etc.

The gloop will last a while stored in a Tupperware box but when you do decide to get rid of it I would recommend putting it in the bin rather than down the drain as I'm not sure that it would do your pipes much good (I tend to dispose of it in one of those pesky non-recyclable yoghurt pots or plastic veg boxes that my daughter would otherwise nab for junk modelling).

I love gloop because it is safe for tinies but older kids enjoy it too, a perfect activity if your children have a big age gap! It is great for sensory play but there are so many other learning opportunities that the kids won't even notice - Maths as mentioned earlier, developing their communication as they discuss the texture, science, imagination and creativity. And most of all it's great fun that anyone can join in with!