How To Make Planet Slime - Little Bins for Little Hands

I know Earth Day is supposed to be about planting trees, cleaning up our communities, and caring for the environment and it is! But it is also fun to make an Earth Day slime too! Why not learn how to make planet slime too! Slime that looks like an earth is sure to be loads of fun for the kids. Check out all our Earth Day activities for kids.

HOW TO MAKE EARTH DAY SLIME

EARTH DAY SLIME

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 recipes list that also adds a bit about the slime science and slime safety tips.

This gorgeous sparkling Earth Day themed slime recipe is a terrific way to explore a cool chemistry experiment. We made two batches of green and blue glitter slime with our slime activator, liquid starch and clear glue. Then combined them in a plastic globe ornaments to make our planet slime. Read on for the full recipe!

We also have a Lorax 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 recipe 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.

Looking for easy to print activities, and inexpensive problem-based challenges?

We have you covered…

Click below to get your free Earth Day STEM challenges!

EARTH DAY SLIME RECIPE

You can easily make a half batch of this glitter glue 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!

SUPPLIES:

1/2 Cup of Washable PVA Clear Glue
1/4-1/2 Cup of Liquid Starch
1/2 Cup of Water
Blue and Green Glitter
Container, Measuring Cup, and Spoon
Reusable Plastic Ornament

HOW TO MAKE EARTH DAY SLIME

STEP 1: In a bowl add 1/2 cup water and 1/2 cup glue and mix well to combine completely.

STEP 2: Now’s the time to add color, glitter, or confetti!

STEP 3: Pour in 1/4 cup of liquid starch and stir well.

You will see the slime immediately start to form and pull away from the sides of the bowl. Keep stirring until you have a gooey blob of slime. The liquid should be gone!

STEP 4: Start kneading your slime! It will appear stringy at first but just work it around with your hands and you will notice the consistency change.

SLIME MAKING TIP: The trick with liquid starch slime is to put a few drops of the liquid starch onto your hands before picking up the slime. However, keep in mind that although adding more liquid starch reduces the stickiness, and it will eventually create a stiffer slime.

MORE FAVORITE SLIME RECIPES

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 playdough!

THE SCIENCE BEHIND OUR EARTH SLIME

How does slime work? 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!