How To Make Earth Day Slime for Kids Science Experiments and Activities

I know Earth Day is supposed to be about planting trees, cleaning up our communities, and caring for the environment, but you know I had to make an Earth Day slime recipe too. We definitely have more traditional activities for Earth Day here. Why not learn how to make Earth Day slime too. It’s loads of fun for the kids.

HOW TO MAKE EARTH DAY SLIME RECIPE FOR SCIENCE EXPERIMENTS AND ACTIVITIES

Ah yes, we love to make slime, and there are so many different ways to make slime that are quick and easy. We just finished collecting our favorite ideas into one easy to use slime recipe resource that also adds a bit about the science behind the slime and slime safety tips.

WATCH THE VIDEO! We have tons of seasonal and unique slime videos to check out here.

This gorgeous sparkling Earth Day themed slime recipe is a terrific way to explore a cool chemistry experiment. Learn about polymers, mixtures, ratios, cross linking, molecules and more just by making one of our homemade slime recipes. Read more science below.

We also have a Lorax themed Planet Earth slime to check out, and if you ever wanted to learn how to make goop, we have an Earth Day goop or oobleck that is pretty cool too.

You can even spend time with your kids playing with homemade slime and talking about Earth facts! It’s a great way to start a discussion about our planet, talk about community clean up plans, or learn more about ways we can help protect the environment every day.

EARTH DAY SLIME SUPPLIES

Make sure to read through our recommended slime supplies guide to see all of our favorite brands and fun mix-ins.

PVA Washable School Glue Clear

Blue and Green Glitter

Liquid Starch (or choose Baking Soda and Saline Solution)

Water

Container, Measuring Cup, and Spoon

Reusable Plastic Ornament

CHOOSE YOUR SLIME RECIPE: Choose from any of the recipes below depending on which one you like best! Click on each black box below to see which recipe you like best.

You can easily make a half batch of this recipe and use only a 1/4 cup for the recipe if you don’t want to have to use two bottles of glue. We did use the whole vial of glitter {but it was a small one}. We love glitter.

If you like our ornament idea for creating your perfect Earth Day slime, you won’t need a full portion of slime for each color. It was certainly fun to swirl the slime colors together and create our own version of the Earth. You could also make Earth Day play dough!

A super simple recipe for homemade slime and all the slime ingredients you need to get started makes cool science experiments and activities for kids. Please read more about the science behind the slime here.

THE SCIENCE BEHIND THE EARTH SLIME RECIPE

What’s the science behind the slime? The borate ions in the slime activators (sodium borate, borax powder, or boric acid) mix with the PVA (polyvinyl-acetate) glue and forms this cool stretchy substance. This is called cross linking!

The glue is a polymer and is made up of long, repeating, and identical strands or molecules. These molecules with flow past one another keeping the glue in a liquid state. Until…

When you add the borate ions to the mixture, it starts to connect these long strands together. They begin to tangle and mix until the substance is less like the liquid you started with and thicker and rubberier like slime!

Picture the difference between wet spaghetti and leftover spaghetti the next day. As the slime forms the tangled molecule strands are much like the clump of spaghetti!

Is slime a liquid or solid? We call it a Non-newtonian fluid because it’s a little bit of both!