We’ve made play-dough, we’ve made slime and kinetic sand…so what’s next? Time to get silly with some SILLY PUTTY! My kid absolutely loves getting his fingers all sticky when he “cooks”, as he calls it. Not only does he thoroughly enjoy the process of making all things mushy, gooey and slimy, but he will spend hours playing with the end result over the following few days (until every little bit of it has been mushed into my couch and carpet that is)!
So, one cold and windy afternoon we got “cooking” and made our very own silly putty, which made for an excellent all-round sensory play activity. I can honestly say; all of our senses were tickled!
Touch: As we made our putty we felt the different textures. First, we felt the dry softness of the flour and corn starch, then the slipperiness and coldness of the soapy water we added. As we added the glue things got a little slimier. Once everything was mixed together, we were left with a soft and squishy dough-like texture.
Taste: Before my son added the glue and Borax, I ask him to taste the dough, his response: YUCK!! NB. This recipe is more suitable for kids who are not likely to want to eat the putty, as the glue and Borax are definitely NOT edible!
Sight: We discussed the colours of the putting as we progressed with the recipe. At first everything was white, but when we added the green dish soap mixture, everything turned a light green colour. My son always wants to make things blue, but this time I managed to encouraged him to use red food colouring instead. He said the red looked like blood (charming), but as we mixed it in the end result was a light pink.
Smell: At first there was no distinctive smell to our recipe, but once we added the dish soap my little boy said it smelt “clean”.
Sound: Once we had our silly putt read we dropped it onto the table to here is splatter, we also held it to our hears to listen to it squelch as we mushed it in between our fingers.
HERE'S HOW YOU CAN MAKE YOUR OWN SILLY PUTTY
You will need:
- 1 cup of flour
- 2 cups of corn starch
- Half a teaspoon of borax
- Half a cup of water
- 2 tablespoons of dish soap
- About 3 tablespoons of white cold glue
- Half a cup of salt
- Food colouring (optional)
Method:
- Mix all of your dry ingredients together, except for the Borax.
- Mix the water, dish soap and Borax together in a jug, and then stir this into your dry ingredients.
- Add the food colouring and glue and start squishing everything together with your hands.
The result:
The end result is a doughy-like substance that is slightly wobbly. Because of the corn starch the substance is more solid when handled, but as soon as you lay it down it starts to flatten into a more liquid-like form. It’s not as stretch as slime but it doesn’t tear as easily as play-dough. It’s just plain SILLY!
A SILLY PUTTY VIDEO:
This is a lovely activity to do with younger kids and as a parent you can make the putty with your kids at home, or if you are teacher, this is a wonderful group activity too and it’s excellent for developing the little ones’ senses! When you are done with the silly putty, store it in an air-tight container and keep it until next time!
** All photos were taken by @sweetpea
Much love - @sweetpea