Nature Goop puts a fun, outdoorsy twist on our traditional 2-ingredient Oobleck recipe. Kids can explore flowers and leaves from the garden while getting in a good dose of magical sensory play. It’s a wonderful simple science activity for toddlers and preschoolers, and all you need are two ingredients and your own backyard.
The first time that we made goop, we used our basic Oobleck recipe which is just two ingredients: corn starch and water. The result is a liquid that turns to a solid and back into a liquid again. It’s so fun to play with and it feels amazing in your hands!
Katie (from Happily Ever Mom) and her kids made Nature Goop recently, and they’re about to tell us all about it.
Nature Soup Turned Nature Goop…
Adding new ingredients to an activity that your kids love is a great way to breathe new life into an activity that you know your kids will enjoy.
My kids love a good sensory play activity, so we make Goop often. The other day, we made it again, and to make our goop a little more interesting, we decided to use the leftovers from our nature soup to make nature goop.
And, I have to tell you, the results were gorgeous and SO fun to play with! Our “nature goop” is a must try!
How Do You Make Goop?
Goop is a simple mixture of cornstarch and water. We’ll talk about the ratio of cornstarch to water in a minute, but when you get the right balance of these two kitchen ingredients, goop is irresistible to play with!
Add nature materials to the goop and you’ve got a whole new sensory experience for your kids (and you!).
In fact, my two young boys played with this all morning. We added a few of their small plastic animals which turned our nature goop into a nature swamp.
They had a blast!
Let me show you how we made it. It’s really easy!
To make your Nature Goop, you’ll need:
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- Cornstarch (also known as cornflour in the UK)
- Cold Water
- Nature items – flower petals, leaves, grass, or whatever treasures your child wants to add
- Baking sheet or plastic bin
- Plastic animals (optional) – my boys used these to play in the nature goop/swamp as they called it
The Magic Ratio to Make Goop… Goop
I’ve got to be honest with you, I’ve made a lot of batches of goop over the years.
Often, I struggled to get our goop just right.
- Too much water in your goop, and the cornstarch settles at the bottom of the container and your goop won’t solidify.
- Too much cornstarch in your goop, and the results are just the opposite. Your goop will be too stiff.
The ratio of cornstarch to water for Goop:
I’ve found the ratio for making the best goop is 2 parts cornstarch to 1 part water.
Start with 1 cup of cornstarch and 1/2 cup of water, and tweak it if need be until the substance feels just right.
Let the kids help you add a little bit more cornstarch if it’s too watery, or a little more water if it’s too powdery.
You will know when you have the right ratio of the two ingredients because the substance will be easy to pick up in your hands but will lose its form as it drips through your fingers.
To make your goop more visually interesting, you can add food coloring to your mixture, but this is where my boys dumped in their nature soup instead.
The color of the water was a nice, earthy brown.
The goop actually looked fabulous once we added in the cornstarch. I encouraged my son to pick up our plastic bin and move the bin around to mix the ingredients together.
Then, we used our hands to finish making the goop.
After it was all mixed together, we grabbed our plastic animals and dripped goop all over them.
It was SO much fun! And, it spiraled into hours of pretend play.
How To Clean Up Goop
When we were all done, I filled the container with more water and mixed everything together with my hands.
This helped to dissolve the cornstarch into the water which made it easy for me to clean the goop off of everything.
The bonus?
My kids wanted to play with the watery goop AGAIN because it looked even more like swamp water!
More hours of play and easy cleanup? Yes, please!
Looking for More Simple Science Activities for Kids?
