An Oobleck Kind of Day!

Hey friends!

Can you believe it's almost March? Seriously - that is C-U-RAZY!!! It's almost time for celebrating Dr. Seuss! My boys have literally fallen in love with Seuss' books, his use of rhyme, and his just plain silliness! I was a little timid doing Seuss with my older kids - worried they'd think they were too big for it. But, I'm telling you they loved it. :)

We read the book Bartholemew and the Oobleck - one of the oldest of all Dr. Seuss books. It's a hilarious book...... King Derwin was tired of the normal stuff that comes from they sky: rain, snow, fog, and sun. He called upon his royal magicians to create something new and exciting to fall from the sky. He gets oobleck and it creates a big silly mess! Bartholemew has to come to the rescue!

Bartholomew and the Oobleck: (Caldecott Honor Book) (Classic Seuss)

Apparently you can't read this Dr. Seuss book without whipping up your own batch of oobleck, so we did! I've made flubber many times in my own classroom, but I had never made oobleck so we decided to give it a try. First we went to youtube and found several fantastic videos! Yay!! Gosh! How did we learn anything prior to youtube?

Here's a great video showing how to make the oobleck:

Here's how we made it.....and oh yeah - we LOVED it!! I was actually BLOWN AWAY by how easy it was to make. Seriously - 2 kitchen ingredients are required - water and cornstarch.

It's messy, but oh so fun! My advice if you are trying this in the classroom is to use small cups or even zip-loc baggies instead of the large bowl. Better yet, I'd just send a note home to parents letting them know to send their children with play clothes because we'll be getting messy! Seriously - those are the BEST days and the days your kiddos will remember!

So, here's what we started with....

Materials:

*bowl

*spoon

*measuring cups

*2 cups cornstarch

*1 cup water

Optional - food coloring and glitter

Food coloring is optional if you want it to be a color other than white. We used green to match Dr. Seuss' oobleck. Reagan was also determined to use glitter in the oobleck. It's not necessary, but it really made his day!

How-To:

1. Pour 1 cup water into large bowl.

2. Pour in 1 cup cornstarch.

3. Add 3 drops of food coloring. (optional)

4. Mix. 

5. Slowly pour in approximately 1 more cup of cornstarch while your mix. You will start to notice the mixture get thick. That's when you have oobleck. Then, the only thing left to do is dig your hands in!!!

There was no mistaken when we had the right mixture. It was definitely OOBLECK!

Ta-da!!!!!!

I have included WAY too many photos, but we really had such a wonderful time. I couldn't resist sharing them. :)

See the big clump on the left side? Proof that this stuff really turns solid.

Eewww..... you can probably imagine that my boys LOVED this gross looking oobleck!

That smile is unmistakable! Pure joy! Just the way learning should be.... bet he never forgets "Bartholemew and the Oobleck"! In fact, Reagan told his daddy all about oobleck and high viscosity. I wish I had been able to record Reagan explaining high viscosity to his dad. CRAZY!

Even Jordan (my 10 year old) couldn't get enough of this stuff!

Look the beginning of an oobleck ball!

We took it outside so they could REALLY have fun with it!

Jordan was fascinated with making it a solid and then letting it turn back to a liquid.

ooohhhh - love the cheesy smile! I'm also loving this nice warm Texas weather....it's the best time of the year here...not to cold and not too hot.

Reagan wanted to test the oobleck in many ways. Here he's pouring it from one container to another. He couldn't get over how the ball he just made was now pouring into another container.

There! His oobleck ball is back!.....but not for long!

We literally spent all afternoon playing with the oobleck. It is messy so beware of that. But doesn't all great learning occur amongst mess?! We talked alot about why oobleck happened. We learned that this mixture is the way it is because of its' high viscosity. Here are a couple of great learning video we watched before trying out our own experiment:

It's Alive! (The 100th Episode) from Children's Museum of Houston on Vimeo.

Oh!! P.S. - just a reminder..... DO NOT pour the mixture down your drain. I've heard bad things can happen....clogging. ;)

To finish off our Oobleck afternoon we had some pistaschio pudding...YUM! (You could also add a touch of green food coloring to vanilla if you don't want to use pistachio. :)

Now - get busy! You've got some oobleck to make!