Late last week we made a batch of slime called Gak — see this post for the recipe — and it’s been a huge success with my almost 3-year old. On day one, N experimented with various ways of interacting with it (rolling, stamping, cutting, pulling), and was excited to introduce her dad to Gak the next day (he loved it, too…it’s really fun stuff). Later that day she wanted to revisit it with her play kitchen tools. We talked about its drippy, viscous nature and thought it would be interesting to test it out in the play colander.
After it sat in it for a few moments, her grandmother lifted it up for us to observe. It began to drip through!
The drips came slowly, so we rigged this pot holder from some CD cases that we painted (post on this crazy activity is coming soon!) in order to watch them come down.
And then we sat back and enjoyed the show. N cut a few blobs off with her little-kid knife before the whole thing “timbered over.” 
Since gak slime is pliable, and we also tried our luck at blowing bubbles into it. To do this we took a small piece of Gak, smoothed it out into a disc shape, and then pulled it around the end of a straw before blowing into it. Finessing it took a little practice, but it worked! N wasn’t able to wrap the Gak around the straw herself, but she did enjoy blowing bubble after bubble.
Next time we bring out the Gak, it would be fun to test it in a variety of porous objects. Can you think of any other tools or materials that could interact with Gak?
Interesting to see blowing bubbles with the gak, I’ll do this with my children. I’m sure they’ll love it. Neat experiment with the play kitchen colander – you and N do such great things!
Brenda
Thank you, Brenda! Your kids will absolutely LOVE this, I’m sure.
i love it
When I used to work at a preschool, we used to make GAK for Dad’s day and leave it out with marbles under it to look like barf – the dad’s loved it. You do amazing things, makes me miss preschool!
Nora, that’s hilarious!! I’m all for infusing childhood with as much humor as possible. Thank you for the really nice comment.
Another way to do the bubbles is to let it sit on a surface like a table for a long time so that it thins out and makes a huge blob. Quickly grab the gak with two hands on one side. Put it up and put it back down quickly. It traps the air and makes a HUGE table sized bubble. You can also achieve this by teamwork. Give a number of children straws and have them blow their bubbles into the gak on the table. We can’t get enough of this stuff!
I remember this from one of your posts, Amy, which is what gave me the idea for blowing bubbles to begin with! Given that it was just me, N, and grandma, we needed a few more hands on deck, I think? There will be a table-sized gak bubble in our future, I’m sure!
Oh my so much fun!! Love the pic where N is looking at the drips from colander 🙂 And blowing a bubble is ultimate.. Im sure my daughter will love this… I have tried the cornstarch recipe should try this one.. borox added to my shopping list 🙂
Thanks for sharing
Thanks, Roopa. I bet your daughter would enjoy this too!
You can also put this into a balloon (adult patience and motor skills required), tie a not in the end, and it becomes a long-lasting squeezable stress ball. Probably not as fun for little kids who like to see it, but older kids think it’s cool and they can carry it around in their pocket this way.
Hi Julia! Thanks for sharing! I hadn’t thought of making it into a stress ball, and I’m sure that others will love to have this idea too.
I bought some.