How To Make Hanukkah Slime

Let’s learn how to make Hanukkah slime! I want to make sure that all my readers have a cool slime to make for the winter season, and I have noticed there isn’t a whole lot of fun Hanukkah science or STEM activities out there. We made one of our easy slime recipes below with a Hanukkah and Dreidel theme! Hope you enjoy!

HANUKKAH SLIME FOR KIDS

HANUKKAH ACTIVITIES

In all honesty, I will let you know that we don’t celebrate Hanukkah here. However, my son’s classroom has been enjoying several Hanukkah stories this week. I also know that Hanukkah is not an equivalent to Christmas! As important as it is to celebrate and enjoy our own occasions, it’s also important to reach out and learn about holidays around the world.

My son is looking forward to learning how to play Dreidel this week. Unfortunately, these dreidels are more for decoration than play! Though he’s still enjoying them.

We love making homemade slime, and we wanted to make a fun Hanukkah theme slime recipe for all our friends out there celebrating Hanukkah. Enjoy the recipe and pictures below!

HOW DO YOU MAKE SLIME?

We always like to include a bit of homemade slime science around here, and that’s perfect for exploring chemistry with a fun Hanukkah theme.

Slime is an excellent chemistry demonstration and kids love it too! Mixtures, substances, polymers, cross-linking, states of matter, elasticity, and viscosity are just a few of the science concepts that can be explored with homemade slime!

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 form 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 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! Experiment with making the slime more or less viscous with varying amounts of foam beads. Can you change the density?

—>>> FREE SLIME RECIPE CARDS

HANUKKAH SLIME TIPS

This Hanukkah slime uses one of our most basic slime recipes which is clear glue, water, glitter glue, and liquid starch.

Now if you don’t want to use liquid starch as the slime activator, you can absolutely test out one of our other basic recipes using saline solution or borax powder. We have tested all three recipes with equal success!

We believe learning how to make slime shouldn’t be disappointing or frustrating! That’s why we want to take the guesswork out of making slime for you.

HANUKKAH SLIME RECIPE

NOTE: We made two batches of slime for our Hanukkah slime recipe, blue glitter, and silver glitter. You can also add in gold glitter slime!

SUPPLIES:

Clear Washable PVA School Glue
Silver and Blue Glitter Glue Bottles (1.5ish ounces, if you don’t have these just use extra glitter!)
Silver and Blue Glitter
1/2 cup of Water
1/4-1/2 cup of Liquid Starch
Silver and Blue Sequins
Decorative Dreidels and/or Hanukkah Confetti

STEP 1. Squeeze the content of your mini glitter glue bottle into a 1/2 cup measure. Fill the remaining space with clear glue.

Note: If not using the smaller glitter glue bottle, just use a full 1/2 cup of clear glue.

STEP 2. Add the water.

STEP 3. Mix the glue and water together.

STEP 4. This is a great time to add sequins or even Hanukkah themed confetti.

STEP 5. Add in your slime activator (liquid starch) to complete the chemical reaction you read about above in the science behind the slime section. If you scrolled past it, go back and read it with your kids!

You can see the slime start form almost immediately when you pour in the liquid starch.

It won’t take long for the slime to come together. You can only mix so long with a spoon before it’s time to dig in with your hands.

KNEADING SLIME IS KEY

We always recommend kneading your slime well after mixing. Kneading the slime really helps to improve it’s consistency. The trick with slime is to squirt a few drops of liquid starch onto your hands before picking up the slime.

You can knead the slime in the bowl before you pick it up as well. This slime is stretchy but can be stickier. However, keep in mind that although adding more slime activator reduces the stickiness, it will eventually create a stiffer slime.