Gak

On Thursday in science, we made a time-honored favorite substance in preschool: Gak (also known as Flubber in some circles).

Here is the recipe:

Make sure to use non-metal bowls and utensils

In one bowl combine: 1/2 c. warm water, 1 c. of Elmer's Glue. Mix until well blended.

In another bowl combine: 1 c. warm water and 4 tsp. Borax. Mix until Borax dissolves. 

Add your preferred food coloring color to each bowl.

Pour the Borax mixture into the glue mixture and watch it turn into a stringy goop before your eyes. A grownup will need to knead the mixture until all of the water is worked in and you are left with a consistent, rubbery substance.

Now for the fun part. Gak is slimy, smooth, cool, icky, slippery, and a lot of fun to work in your hands. With some patience, you can let it ooze down you fingers as it stretches slowly. The kids made it into balls, snakes, shapes and pancakes. They also worked on sharing and fairness. They worked on making sure everyone had about the same amount to play with, even when new kids joined the fun.

Playing with Gak promotoes fine motor coordniation development by having the kids use the muscles in their fingers to explore it. In the scientific realm, they also learned that glue and borax have a chemical reaction that makes the rubbery Gak. Alone, they were wet and liquid. They use all sorts of scientific descriptions to talk about how the gak moves, feels, and changes as they play with it. They even did some color mixing. We made a blue batch and a red batch. When they worked the two colors together, they got a light purple color.