Bring on the Wild Things

We have just started having some fun with monsters this week. We read Go Away Big Green Monster by Ed Emberly. We also listened to Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak as a book on tape with Grandma Freda. Rumor has there is a movie coming out this month based on this classic. I am reserving judgment on whether or not I think this is a good thing.

The project for the week was making monster cups. The kids each drew a monster face on a paper cup. Then they filled the cup with dirt, added some grass seed, and watered it. We will watch these cups and see how well the grass grows. As the grass grows taller and taller, it will become the hair for the monster faces.

The other hit this week was making gak--a rubbery substance--to explore with at the science table.
The recipe is:
In one non-metal bowl mix together
2 cups Elmers Glue
1 1/2 cups warm water
A little food coloring (your choice of color--we used red and then blue)

In another non-metal bowl mix together until dissolved
4 teaspoons of borax
1 and 1/3 cups warm water

When both bowls are mixed to a even consistency, pour the borax bowl mixture into the glue bowl mixtures. Quickly begin kneading the sloppy, slimy mixture with your hands. When the water feels absorbed and the substance feels rubbery, you have Gak
Keep this in an airtight container and it will keep for a long time. If it begins to dry out, you can add a little more water to revitalize it.

The problems with gak can come if it gets rubbed into carpeting, clothes or hair. If you catch it right away, it comes out easily, but if it has time to get ground in, it is as difficult to remove as glue (because, after all, it is made mostly from glue).

When the kids were playing with the Gak, some of them mixed the pink and blue batches together. At first, it looked a lot like two-colored cotton candy, with swirls of pink and blue still holding their color. Eventually, the kids noticed the colors completely mixed and made a light purple. It was also interetsing to listen to the words the kids used to describe this odd substance. I heard sticky, gooey, bouncy, icky, and weird.