Toddler Time: Oobleck

Sometimes I feel like we are going through life hanging on to the seat of our pants!  We are so busy around here, but we are having a blast!  Last weekend, we took the time to do a family literacy/science activity.  I was planning on doing it, but when I was telling my husband about oobleck, he had never done it . . . so we had to. . . it is just that cool.  

To start out, we read Bartholomew and the Oobleck, by Dr. Seuss.  The story is about a king who gets tired of the same weather patterns every year (rain, snow, sun, clouds, dark) and calls his magicians together to come up with something new.  They go away and makes some sort of potion and the next morning, it starts to rain small drops of green goo (oobleck).  As the morning progresses, this goo grows into HUGE drops and starts to ruin everything.  Bartholomew, a little boy who works for the king, sets out to save the day. . . and I am not going to finish it for you, because you  will just have to read it yourself to find out what happens.  

 I will note, that it is a very wordy book. . . and kind of long.  Too long for an almost 3 year old boy to sit through, so I read it in exciting paraphrase form.  He loved it!

 Don't they look like they are having fun?

 After the story, we headed to the kitchen where we got out the cornstarch, food coloring, water, and cups. Here's the recipe.  Oobleck makes this great substance that is a liquid when you lightly tough it and a solid when force is put to it.  It is really fun to play with!

 Ethan thought it was cool, but he was kind of scared of it.

Ethan now talks about oobleck quite often and likes to show me the book.