Making Slime, or Flubber?

My speech-language pathologist buddy and I had bunches of fun making "flubber" with teens in a class for students with autism.  Reading directions, measuring, passing around materials, making requests, deciding what colors to pick, glitter/no glitter options--it all made for lots of reach, grasp, pinch, twists, grading forearm movement, paying attention to the task, making and responding to requests and sharing.  Oh, and touching the flubber!

It can be gooey, or

it can be more like "Silly Putty."

For students who prefer not to touch it directly, just keep it in the bag for them to squeeze and spread.

You'll need equal parts water, school glue and liquid starch. 

Mix water with the glue and stir thoroughly.

Add a little pinch strength challenge and keep the caps on fairly tight.

Be sure to observe all the interesting pinch and grasp patterns.

After the water and glue are mixed (along with a drop of food coloring) then add the liquid starch.  Stir like crazy until it begins to form a lump in the middle of the bowl.

Sometimes the slime is pourable and sometimes is stays in a clump--all depends on the amount of each ingredient that was added and how well the mixture was stirred (and also the humidity in the room, no kidding).

The red glitter we added made the green slime more attractive.  Some of our students were quite hesitant to touch the concoction, whether it was in a more solid state or not.

The slime is nice and cool to the touch when first made and will become a little runny when it's warm, then revert back to the more solid state when it cools.  Just make a small amount in each batch because you never know how it's going to turn out.

 

We were surprised when one of our students said he had seen the old movie about flubber--check it out; your students might find it hilarious.

Word to the cautious--liquid starch often contains ingredients that some folks avoid so be sure to read your labels.  If your students eat anything and everything then choose a different recipe.