Science Discovery: Rainy Day Slime

Each month I check out a huge batch of books from our local library that goes along with our 

Mother Goose Time monthly theme... this month happened to be BUGS.

Rainy Day Slug was one of the books I found this month that has been constantly read!  

The slug explores the inside of a home leaving a nice slimy white trail behind him that Sweet Pea traces with her fingers.  When I mentioned making slime like what the slug leaves behind on our rainy Memorial Day, she was all about it!

On SLUG day, the STEAM station had a slime exploration and recipe that I could not wait to try.

My only problem... I didn't have a 4 oz bottle of glue, but I did have a 16 oz bottle of Mod Podge.  So I found a video and recipe that was very similar to what MGT sent us.

 

Below are all the ingredients we used.  We were going to add some paint to our slime, but we decided to just add the glitter instead.  Sweet Pea was all about adding glitter.  We added a lot more than just the 2 pictured below.  I guess you can't have too much glitter.

Sweet Pea did a great job helping make the slime, but it is definitely an ADULT SUPERVISION project considering borax is involved. 

I actually added about one more tablespoon of borax 

to our mixture which helped the slime solidify more.

However, the thing that helped the most in making our slime come together was

using a kitchen towel to dry out the slime a little.

Once some of the moisture came out of it, the slime really began to take shape.

Once the slime was complete, it was time to play!

Sweet Pea stretched it, poked it, stamped her hand and shapes into it, and buried her bug manipulatives into the slime.  We even acted out the Very Hungry Caterpillar by wrapping one of her caterpillar manipulatives in the slime, making a cocoon, and then making the butterfly come out. 

She loved it!

Sweet Pea explored and played with our Rainy Day Slug Slime for at least an hour before we had to put it away in a plastic airtight container. 

This morning right after breakfast, she came into the kitchen asking for her slime.  As I watched over her and cleaned the kitchen , she played at the table with her slime burying tons of her bug manipulatives into it.  Today she was all about the ladybugs getting slimed.  She sat there and played quietly with her bugs and slime for at least 30 minutes without inviting me to play with her! 

I was so surprised at how much she enjoyed this slime!

She's not one to get wet and sandy or really dirty, but this slime doesn't stick to hands, easily comes off, and is generally a clean project.  She has absolutely loved it!  

And watching her explore something new all on her own just makes me so happy.

Happy Slime Time!

Painting Butterflies

Thanks to Mother Goose Time, Sweet Pea is obsessed with butterflies, 

which is perfectly fine with me. 

They're insects that I actually like.

My previous post was all about our caterpillar day, and naturally, 

the next day, we studied butterflies.

Mother Goose Time supplied this Invitation to Create, but you could easily do it at home.

Here's what you need:

-large sheet of white paper (11x14 or larger works great)

-tempra paints (or any you prefer...tempra comes out of clothes)

-painting supplies (brushes, sponges, whatever you want to use to put the paint on the paper)

-pictures of butterflies (discuss symmetry if child is old enough to understand)

When I set up her Invitation to Create, I made sure to already have her paper folded in half so that she would only apply paint to one side.  Later we flipped the other side on top of the paint to make our symmetrical butterfly painting. 

Here's what she did:

Sweet Pea used all the tools to apply the paint, but she definitely loved the sponge.

She dragged it across the paper and created stamping impressions with it as well.

Don't limit your child to just brushes! 

Anything could be used to apply paint, and you never know what surprise you might end up with.

I love that little line of orange dots Sweet Pea made with her paint brush.

Bringing the sponge back out this time to stamp rectangles.

Once Sweet Pea was done painting, I flipped the folded over white piece on top of her painting and told her to press hard and rub her hands all over the white paper.  This allowed the colors to blend together and really make a good symmetrical print onto the white paper.

Time to dry this beauty.

Here is her masterpiece hanging on the wall with all her other artwork.

I absolutely love it.  I feel like I could really cut around the colors to make a true butterfly shape, 

but I will not do that.  Maybe I'll buy a frame though.

We had a bunch of paint left over and Sweet Pea was all about painting some more, so 

she whipped out a few more butterfly prints.

Perfect gifts for grandparents.

Both grandparents have their butterfly paintings on their fridge.... the perfect artwork spot.

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