Having to wait five minutes mid-process, then having to knead for 10 – 15 was too much to ask our little kids. But, in the end, it was a pretty satisfying imitation of silly putty.īut… we decided not to use this in class. It takes several minutes of kneading to turn into silly putty. When you first start working with this, it’s goo. So, I recommend you start with two tablespoons. I added a bunch more glue to my hand and kneaded that in. That led to a handful of liquidy goo that was not kneadable. Note: The recipes I saw often recommend one part glue and one part liquid starch. Supplies: Elmer’s Multi-Purpose Glue (apparently Elmer’s school glue does not work) food coloring, liquid starch ( Sta-Flo – apparently Niagara doesn’t work) tablespoon, spoon, dish to mix in, plastic eggs. We will continue to use this activity, even though it’s not perfect, because it IS interesting. If you ask “what would happen if you combined glue, this powder and this liquid? Did you know you can make a ball that bounces? Isn’t that crazy?” then they might think the results were cool just for the fact that it makes a ball at all. If you tell kids they can make the best bouncy ball ever, they’ll be disappointed in their results. I think it can be a successful class experiment if you set expectations appropriately. When we follow the recipe I describe in detail above, you get an OK ball. I left the blue ball and yellow ball the same bag overnight, and they mushed completely, blending into each other, and had to be thrown away the next day. Made a good ball, it seemed, but it flattened as soon as you set it down. Also, it did not maintain its shape as well as the other recipe, flattening out a lot.įor the yellow ball, I followed the PBS parents recipe, but with the same ingredient proportions as all the other recipes. BUT it left behind about 4 tablespoons of leftover liquid – waste of ingredients. Results: a very elastic, bouncy, semi-translucent ball – most satisfying bouncy ball. Steps: 1) water, borax and cornstarch, 2) glue and food coloring, 3) mix together. It had way more water and cornstarch than any other recipe. The blue ball was from the PBS parents recipe. (Note: Kids’ Activities Blog recommends a similar method, but half as much cornstarch. I was not able to spread the water around enough to come into contact with all the glue / cornstarch goo right away, so it bonded some parts, but not others and failed to form a homogeneous ball. This was a complete fail for me, as you can see from the picture. The red ball / blob in the picture above was from the Paging Fun Moms recipe. So, the method above is: 1) mix borax & water, 2) mix glue and color 3) layer glue then borax solution, then corn starch If left to sit overnight, they will flatten out on one side… you can kind of re-roll it, but it won’t be quite as round. They’ve got a decent amount of elasticity to them, and will bounce about 4 – 8 inches up when dropped on a table. You can see from the photos that the balls aren’t perfectly round, and they’re a little cracked looking. The ball in the close-up picture was made using this recipe, as was the green one in this picture. When you’re done playing with it, put it in a Baggie – write name on the baggie!.Knead the ball by rolling it around in your palms like play-dough.Once the mixture becomes impossible to stir, dust your palms with cornstarch, and take your ball out of the cup. Allow ingredients to interact on their own for 15 seconds (the video on says 15 minutes, but it’s really seconds), then stir them together to fully mix.Add 1/2 teaspoon of the borax solution you just made and 1 tablespoon of cornstarch to the glue.Pour 1 tablespoon of glue into cup labeled ‘Ball Mixture’.Borax Solution: Pour 2 tablespoons warm water and 1/2 teaspoon borax powder into a cup.Here’s my current recipe with detailed tips. I also tested, for comparison, different methods, from Paging Fun Moms and PBS Parents. Mole’s Bouncing Ball), plus clues from Science Bob, and Home Science Tools. I mostly follow the directions on (They credit their source as Meg A. Here’s my detailed process on this… if you’re just looking for a quick summary of the directions, look at my post on Chemistry Mixtures. At least I haven’t produced a great one after all my testing. The cool thing about this project? It takes a few minutes and a few simple ingredients, and you’ve made a bouncy ball! Downside… it’s not a great bouncy ball.
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