What kind of sensory activities are you including in your Christmas Theme lesson plans? This year, I’m adding a borax free Christmas slime.
Super Stretchy Borax Free Christmas Slime
I love planning for my Christmas preschool theme because I find so many Christmas icons inspiring to our lessons. We’ve used jingle bells for a Christmas STEM activity. We’ve used green and red to make a measurement based Christmas sensory bin. We’ve used fun Christmas printables to add some prewriting cards to our preschool writing center.
And that’s just a tiny handful of Christmas activities we’ve done in preschool.
You can find all my Christmas preschool activities in the link below. It’s an ever-growing page of all my Christmas activities all categorized to make your lesson planning even easier.
But of all those festive activities we hadn’t done a Christmas slime. So this was the year! And this Christmas slime was so fun!
Now, there are a few different recipes for making slime. This is one is a Borax free Christmas slime. It’s stretchy and not too sticky, which is a total bonus when you’re handing it to a bunch of preschoolers!
After making slime with my preschoolers, I like to send home a bit with each preschooler. I tell parents that their child can play with it in a shallow tray, like a 9×13 baking dish. It also washes out of clothing very well. This helps parents be brave enough to try playing with slime at home.
And since this is a Christmas slime, my preschoolers really, really wanted to take some home!
Borax Free Christmas Slime Recipe
As with any slime recipe, you only need a few ingredients, and since this slime recipe is Borax free, you’re almost guaranteed to have all the ingredients in your home already.
- Liquid school glue (preferably clear)
- Contact solution
- Baking soda
- Red and green glitter
- Red, green, and white Pom poms
How to Make Borax Free Christmas Slime
In a large bowl, combine 1 cup liquid school glue, 2-4 tablespoons of glitter, and one tablespoon of baking soda. Stir very well.
Add 2-3 tablespoons of contact solution, and mix in the bowl until the mixture begins to solidify. At first, it will look like a stringy mess. Don’t worry. You haven’t done anything wrong.
Finish mixing by hand. If the slime is too sticky, add a little more contact solution, about 1 teaspoon at a time, and work it through. You might need to knead it a little bit. Error on the side of caution and work the contact solution thoroughly before adding more.
The less contact solution you use, the more stretchy the slime will be. The more you use, the more rubbery it will be.
Finally, add your pom-poms as you play with the slime.
About This Super Stretchy Borax Free Christmas Slime
I love the stretch in the slime! Gently pull your hands apart and stretch the slime and see how far it will go. Some of my preschoolers were able to stretch it as far as their arms could go, and another preschooler tried standing on his chair to watch it drip down to the floor!
Another one of my preschoolers rolled it out into long snakes. That’s a great fine motor activity, and just a side note, it’s a little easier to use slime over play dough. So if you have a preschooler who needs a lot of help developing that rolling motion, the Borax free Christmas slime is the perfect place to start!
A quick note about Borax free slime…
Borax is simply a cleaning agent that contains sodium borate. Liquid starch also contains sodium borate as does contact solution. So, please understand that while this recipe does not include Borax the cleaning agent in the ingredient list, to make traditional slime you must have sodium borate. It is the sodium borate the reacts with the PVA (liquid school) glue to form slime.
So, Borax free. Yes. Sodium borate free? No.
And as with any play recipe, this should be done under supervision.
Looking for More Christmas Activities?
I’ve made an entire page that contains all of the best Christmas activities for preschoolers. You can check them out in the link below.
>>> Best Christmas Activities for Preschoolers <<<
Want Some Christmas Printables for Preschoolers?
Your little ones will love these! Just click the image below to see the post.
I’m Sarah, an educator turned stay-at-home-mama of five! I’m the owner and creator of Stay At Home Educator, a website about intentional teaching and purposeful learning in the early childhood years. I’ve taught a range of levels, from preschool to college and a little bit of everything in between. Right now my focus is teaching my children and running a preschool from my home. Credentials include: Bachelors in Art, Masters in Curriculum and Instruction.
Love this idea of the Borax-free! What happens if you use white glue? That would dry clear too, but maybe milky??
White school glue will work just as well, but your slime will not be transparent. However, the glitter and pom poms will show up just as well.
How much does this make? I’m looking to make this for a youth group and would love to be able to divide it up so they can each make their own. Thanks!
It makes a little over one cup.
I could not get it to turn into rubbery/stretchy. Probably used 4-5 T. of contact solution. It was still sticky/gluey and coated our hands. What did I do wrong?
Slime can be really finicky sometimes. This is my go-to website about slime fails.
https://preschoolinspirations.com/slime-gone-wrong/
How much slime does this make? I have a class of 11 students and want to know if I have to double this recipe or not. Thank you!
This makes a decent portion, depending on how much you allow your preschoolers to have. I usually make a double batch for my class of eight students. But that allows them to have PLENTY of slime.
Hi my slime is not forming. 🙁 I did 1 cups elmers glue. 2 TBSP of glitter. 1TBSP baking SODA & 1 TSP contact solution & continued to add contact solution. It is getting it thicker but not working. PLEASE HELP!! I need to finish it before the end of the day!
Thank you!
This is my all time favorite post on slime fails. Katie really knows the science behind slime.
https://preschoolinspirations.com/slime-gone-wrong/