By Charlotte Mellor

Selecting one appropriate from list of experiments available from the British Science Week website, I decided something that involved getting her hands messy would be a good start! Messy play that is not only Scientific but also very valuable for children who have complex needs like Scarlett.  If you would like to read more about the benefits of messy play please click here to read the article provided by Janet Harewood, head of services.

Today myself and Scarlett looked at changing states and made some very messy slime!

What you need:

Large mixing bowl/tray

Cornflour

Water

Food colouring (optional)

The purpose of the experiment is to make something that looks like a liquid but behaved as a solid when you hit it!

1. Firstly I placed some cornflower in a bowl, I allowed Scarlett to handle this so that she was aware of the first ‘state’ of the slime.

2. Next I got the jug of water and allowed Scarlett to explore this too, with her hands and mouth.

3. Then slowly I added the water, we didn’t need a lot and I poured the water over her hands were I placed in the bowl so that she could feel the exchange between the two materials.

4. I helped Scarlett with her hands to mix it altogether until they get a good consistency for the oobleck slime gloop.

5. Not a lot of water was needed so I just added the water with Scarlett a tiny bit at a time.  I let her explore the jug of water with her hands and mouth and when I poured it into the cornflower I did so over her hands so she knew what was happening, I made sure the water wasn’t too cold as she can be adverse to things that aren’t room temperature.

6.  We didn’t bother as the colour would make no difference to Scarlett but for your own child you can also add food colouring if you want to make your oobleck slime more vibrant and easy to see.

7. To help with speech and language I gave the texture some descriptive words which Scarlett happily repeated such as ‘yak’ and ‘sticky’.

8. Next we touched the slime and I helped her to mould it into a ball, Scarlett is very keen on putting things in her mouth to test and she did plenty of this!

Originally posted on March 25th, 2017 by Charlotte Mellor on throughscarlettseyes.com

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