What kind of sensory activities are you including in your Christmas theme lesson plans? This year, I’m adding a borax free Christmas slime. Playing with slime is a super fun sensory experience that preschoolers just love!
Super Stretchy Borax Free Christmas Slime
I love making our Christmas lesson plans because I find so many Christmas icons inspiring to our lessons. We’ve used jingle bells for a Christmas STEM activity. We 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.
But of all those festive activities we hadn’t done a holiday 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 a stretchy and not too sticky basic slime, which is a total bonus when you’re handing it to a bunch of preschoolers!
After making homemade 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!
Frequently Asked Questions about Preschool Sensory Activities
Sensory play is a type of play that activates and stimulates a child’s senses. Often, sensory play focuses on stimulating touch, sight, and hearing, as those senses are most accessible.
Sensory activities for preschoolers might include playing with sensory bins and sensory tables, playdough activities, calm down bottles, playing in the sandbox, swinging on a swing, or even walking on a balance beam.
Preschoolers and toddlers will very naturally engage in sensory play, so there often isn’t a lot of direct instruction needed. However, for each play activity, you will want to lay out the ground rules, set boundaries, and watch them experiment.
Here are some tips for introducing your child to sensory activities.
~ Start simple. Just offer a few materials and only in small amounts at first.
~ Establish firm boundaries when doing sensory play. No eating. No dumping. No throwing. If your preschooler does not follow these rules, remove the sensory items and try again later.
~ Accept that messes will happen, even with firm boundaries. Teach your preschooler how to help clean up.
~ Offer a large area for sensory play. For example, when using sensory bins, we put a little rice in a large bin and then pull the bin into the center of the room. This allows my preschoolers room to maneuver around the bin, and it actually helps keep the mess contained.
Sensory play encourages learning through exploration, problem solving, and creativity, rather than direct instruction. It is a true form of play-based learning, which is how preschoolers learn best! Sensory activities actually help to build nerve connections in the brain, and encourage the development of language and motor skills. Playing with slime, for example, is wonderful exercise for fine motor muscles!
Related Christmas Activities
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.
Materials
- Liquid school glue (preferably clear)
- Contact lens solution
- Baking soda
- Red and green glitter
- Red, green, and white pom poms
- Large mixing bowl
- Measuring cup and spoons
Setup
Setup is pretty simple – just make sure you have all the materials on hand!
How to Make Borax Free Christmas Slime
In a large bowl, combine 1 cup liquid school glue and one tablespoon of baking soda. Stir very well.
Add 2-4 tablespoons of glitter and stir again.
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 until the slime forms. Error on the side of caution and work the contact solution thoroughly before adding more.
The less saline 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 Christmas slime without Borax 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 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. Boric acid free? Yes. Sodium borate free? No.
Borax free slime recipes do not automatically yield “safe” slime. As with any play recipe, this should be done under supervision.
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Christmas Picture Books
You can’t forget the Christmas picture books! We love adding a storytime literacy component to all our preschool activities, even sensory ones. Here are some of our favorite Christmas books, perfect for the holiday season!
Borax Free Christmas Slime
Playing with slime is a super fun sensory experience that preschoolers just love!
Materials
- Liquid school glue (preferably clear)
- Contact lens solution
- Baking soda
- Red and green glitter
- Red, green, and white pom poms
- Large mixing bowl
- Measuring cup and spoons
Instructions
- In a large bowl, combine 1 cup liquid school glue and one tablespoon of baking soda. Stir very well.
- Add 2-4 tablespoons of glitter and stir again.
- Add 2-3 tablespoons of contact solution, and mix in the bowl until the mixture begins to solidify.
- Finish mixing by hand.
- Add the pom poms as you play with the slime
Notes
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 until the slime forms. Error on the side of caution and work the contact solution thoroughly before adding more.
The less saline solution you use, the more stretchy the slime will be. The more you use, the more rubbery it will be.
Related
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/