Choices for Children: Halloween Slime

This year, like last, we set up a Make Your Own Slime booth at our annual community Halloween Bash in Alpine County. The kids didn't even miss the candy!

We used this recipe:
1/2 cup clear Elmer's school glue
1/2 cup water
1 Tablespoon contact solution with Boric Acid (Walmart Equate brand)
1/2 tsp baking soda

The above recipe makes about 10 ounces of slime and fit into 2- 5.5 ounces snack cups with lids which we purchased at Walmart. We had the children team up into pairs to create a batch to share. If they wanted different colors, they made the slime base recipe and added the colors and glitter to theirs after they divided the batch.

Variations based upon the scientists' interests: neon food dye, various colors glitter, water beads, glow in the dark powers and googly eyes and bugs. We ordered the glow in the dark powder on Amazon. It made roughly 3-4 batches for each $6 pouch. The glow wasn't very remarkable and our suggestion is to just stick with a variety of colors and mix ins. Most children don't get the opportunity to work with glitter much these days and we found it to be a favorite. Very few kids were interested in the mix ins you see below.

We brought on large stainless steel bowl for mixing. We had to borrow some from the kitchen as we found we began to form a line as the process for each batch could take at least 10 minutes to set. Our suggestion is to have at least 4 bowls with two pairs working, if you are working at a fair event with a large number of children. After we ran out of clear glue, we used white school glue and it took much longer to set. Our recommendation is clear glue and specifically Elmer's- only because it is what we purchased and had success with (other brands may work just as well).