An Easy Must-Try Science Activity!

A friend of mine recently told me about the Cornstarch and Water science activity, and last week we tried it. WOW! This definitely goes on my list of fun, easy, inexpensive activities that gives hours of fun for under $1 total cost.

Can it get any better than that? No, I thought not!

Go to the above site for an explanation of the science (basically polymers and pressure), but for the littles, it's just a lot of fun and a great way to learn about the physical world.

Our green batch! 

Ingredients:

Cornstarch (we used one box per batch)
Water
Liquid food coloring, optional

Add water until workable, and voila! There you go. (If you add too much water, just wait a bit - it will dry out as you play with it.)

It doesn't get much cheaper than cornstarch... definitely my kind o' craft. 

Our 7yo, who hates to get his hands dirty, had to be gradually persuaded into this craft....

.... but the 1yo needed no such persuasion!

Oh, boy! (He spent the rest of the day coated in cornstarch.)

 When you add pressure by stirring quickly, slapping the top, or squeezing a handful of it, it acts as a solid. When pressure is released (stirring slowly, pressing your hand in gently, or opening your hand after squeezing), it acts as a liquid.

One fun thing to try is squeezing a handful into a ball, and then throwing quickly (before it can turn liquid again) - then as it hits, watching it drip into a mass of goo!

We played with this for something like two hours, and had a great time - especially as we providentially picked one of the two cool days of summer to do it, so we had a lovely time!

This mess cleans up well, but I recommend doing out in the (non-cement) yard if possible, as we are going to have to spray our still-cornstarched cement to get all the residual cornstarch off of our patio.

Just in case you were considering it, DO NOT TRY THIS CRAFT INSIDE! 

Enjoy!