Valentine Oobleck Recipe

Oobleck has been blowing kid’s minds since Bartholomew Cubbins had to rescue his kingdom from the sticky green substance. With Valentine’s day around the corner, we wanted to put a pink spin on things. This oobleck recipe only uses 4 everyday ingredients.

Oobleck Recipe

Dump all of your ingredients into a large bowl or baking dish. Stir it all together with a wooden spoon. Lizzie thinks everything is better with glitter, but this is an optional step.

You can also play with the recipe. If your oobleck is too runny, just add more cornstarch.

As your kids are playing, I would suggest reading the Dr. Seuss book, Bartholomew and the Oobleck. If you don’t have the book on hand, you could also play the audiobook to get their imaginations running.

What is Oobleck?

While your kids play away with oobleck, you can also discuss the science behind what is happening. Is it a liquid? Is it a solid? Or is it both? The answer is that it is neither!

Oobleck is actually a non-Newtonian fluid. A non-Newtonian fluid changes its viscosity, or how easily it flows under stress. When you first grab a handful of oobleck, it feels like a solid, but when it is allowed to flow slowly, it turns into a liquid. *mind blown*

This oobleck experiment shows how changes in pressure can change the properties of some materials.

Cleaning up Oobleck

Learn from my mistake when cleaning up glittery oobleck. I had rinsed our baking dish in the sink and let most of the goo go down the drain. Fast forward a few hours and we had an emergency plumber called to the house to unblock the drain. He had to cut open the pipes in the basement and glitter exploded everywhere. Oops.

Scrape the concoction into the trash and try to get as much off their hands as possible. It is a pretty messy experiment depending on how much they play with it. Definitely roll up the sleeves and use a tablecloth. If it is summer, we do this on the deck. If only I could hose the inside of my house down. Sigh.

I hope you have fun with this oobleck recipe. It is such a simple science experiment. Oobleck is so much fun for kids, they don’t even notice that they are learning.