This is a fun summer twist on sensory play with Oobleck. I simply added a small amount of kool-aid mixed with water to my goo (cornflour ( cornstarch ) and water), then carefully poured the mixture into shaped ice cube trays before leaving in the freezer for a few hours. The frozen kool-aid oobleck slipped out of the moulds easily and took just a few minutes to be warm enough to handle.
The oobleck smelled delicious, thanks to the kool-aid, and we loved watching it melt into a cold gloopy mess.
Investigation Ideas
Can you time how long it takes the oobleck to freeze? Does water freeze faster?
Can you get your friends to smell the different coloured oobleck to guess the kool-aid flavour used?
How about placing the frozen oobleck in different places to see which melts first? Don't forget to use the same shapes so you have the same amount of frozen oobleck for each condition. If you want to be very accurate you could weigh each shape to make sure they're the same to make it a fair test.
Once melted, can you scrunch the oobleck into a solid ball? If you drop the ball what happens?
The Science of cornflour gloop
Did you notice that if you make a ball with the slime it is solid, but if you drop it on the floor it turns liquid again? The slime is a non – Newtonian fluid as it doesn’t flow like liquids normally do.
The slime is made up of molecules arranged in long chains. When the chains are stretched the liquid will flow, but when you force them together they stick together to form a solid.
More oobleck experiments
This pumpkin oobleck from Inspiration laboratories looks amazing.
Did you know you can walk on oobleck?
More summer science experiments for kids
Try one of our 50 summer science activities and experiments for kids.
I've also got an exciting collection of 20 fun outdoor science experiments perfect for summer days.
Last Updated on August 29, 2020 by Emma Vanstone
Tabitha Churchill says
This really helped me with my research study’s, Thank you!