Exploring Slime in Preschool

Although we did this slime activity during the summer, I find it appropriate to share right around Halloween.  Slime is a very Halloween-y substance, right?  My preschool students loved playing with this slime and spent a fair amount of time exploring its characteristics.

While I have seen many posts about children playing with slime, I wanted to share with you why it is good for preschoolers to explore sensory materials like slime, as well as what on earth you do with the stuff!

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The simple answer…

You play with it.

Slime has the strangest characteristics in that is flows somewhat like a liquid, spilling out onto the table, but is very obviously a solid.  It is ooey and gooey and cold to the touch as it flows between your fingers and down your arms.  It clings to your hands, but it is not sticky, and very easy to clean up…albeit still a very messy activity!

I used this slime recipe from Growing a Jeweled Rose, but I obviously did not add the glitter and I dyed it neon green with a mixture of food coloring and liquid watercolors.

The first step in introducing your preschooler or toddler to slime is to allow them time to play with it.  Explore.  Discover.  Experiment.  It is such a unique substance that young children need time to process such a strange sensory material before adding tools and props into the play.

Through play, William found it sticks to his skin but will still flow and ooze.  When I took this photo he commented on how his fingers get webbed together like duck feet.  (Unfortunately my point and shoot camera is too old and slow to capture the actual webbed fingers).

This student found that by simply pushing the slime around on the table he could make bubbles in it.

After a good fifteen or twenty minutes of purely free play with the slime, I offered the students to use various kitchen materials to further experiment with slime.

We got out a hand held kitchen strainer and watched as the slime slowly oozed out of the holes, making strings of slime falling onto the table.

We used a kitchen spider to make textures in the slime, but discovered that the impressions don’t stay for very long once the object is lifted.  Students tried making hand prints, too, and also twirled the slime with forks to make “spaghetti”.

I apologize for this photo being back lit, but I think it captures to spirit of exploratory play.  This student used a can strainer to explore the slime.  I love how she is holding the slime above  her head to watch how it slowly drips out of the holes down onto the table.

Enjoy!