When I read about Chris’ adventures with Gloop over at Thinly Spread, I thought it looked perfect for us, so I wrote it down somewhere in one of my many notebooks on one of my many ‘Things to do with the kids’ lists. Except that I seem to remember buying a nice new pretty notebook shortly after which meant that the one I’d written the idea down in was relegated to the old notebook drawer (yes, we really have one) and Gloop was forgotton about.
Miss Frugal reminded me of it last week when I bought her a Science Experiment book and she wrote me a list of ten experiments she had seen in there that she wanted us to do together. Gloop was by far the easiest option on her little list – the others included things like litmus paper, ants, caterpillars, small mirrors and other similar ‘household’ items. So, seeing as yesterday was yet another rainy day, we decided to have a go at making it and we had so much fun that I can’t wait to do it again….
The Fun Bit
To make the Gloop, mix two cups of cornflour with one cup on water and mix it all together with your hands. When it’s mixed, the strangest thing happens to it -if you roll the mix into a ball or apply any pressure to it, it’s a solid, but as soon as you stop, it seems to melt back into liquid! I couldn’t get my head round it and I ended up spending more time playing with it than the kids did.
I think we spent at least half an hour trying to get a picture of Master Frugal rolling the mix into a ball but every time he stopped moving for me to take a photo, it melted away and in the end we gave up as we laughing so hard, so you’ll have to take my word for it.
The Science Bit
Cornflour is made of lots of string like particles that don’t dissolve in water but do spread themselves out which means that the Gloop can be both a solid and a liquid. When you roll the mix round in your hands, the particles join together and it feels solid, and when it’s left to settle, even for a second, the particles slide over each other and it feels more like a liquid.
At less than 50p for the cornflour, it’s well worth having a go. It is quite a messy activity though so if it’s a nice day, you might want to take it outside. We played in the kitchen and managed to get the Gloop everywhere but it wipes up really easily although we found it easier to let it dry before wiping it up. It’s probably best keeping it away from carpets though as I’m not sure how easy that will be to clean up.
If you want to take Gloop step further, Chris has a few suggestions for you (clue: they involves speakers and a paddling pool ;-))
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