Ooey Gooey Mixing Colors

Aimee Folk
Aug 3, 2017
2 min read

Waking up to a rambunctious and adventurous toddler boy every morning never gets old. There are days when I find myself saying things that I never thought I would say (today's was don't eat the dead bug)! As fellow moms (or even early childhood educators) I am sure you can relate!

I find that I need to keep him busy with fun and engaging activities, trips to the park, fun books to read and a variety of sensory projects! But keeping him busy can cost some money especially when we go to the museum or a trampoline park etc. I want to be able to give him fun, engaging activities to do that are educational and don't break my bank account!

I also get this craving to be the reason my son's eyes light up as he learns something new. I want to be able to spark that imagination, that WOW moment, and I want him to come to me and ASK for these fun and engaging activities. Thankfully I can use my years as an Early Childhood Educator (ECE) to come up with some great fun things for him to do. Enter today's activity: Ooey Gooey Mixing Colors!

This particular activity came out of one of my favorite books as an ECE, "Ooey Gooey Tooey" by the Ooey Gooey Lady! She calls it OOBLICK, I call it Ooey Gooey Goop ;) . It's a great activity to engage children in sensory development, color recognition and science. Stryder absolutely loved this activity and the wonderful part is that even though it seems quite messy the goop dries and just flakes off!

All you will need:

- Corn- Starch (super cheap at grocery store)

- Water

- Liquid Water-Color/Food Coloring (Optional)

Yup. That's it... that's all you need! Essentially Ooey Gooey Goop is equal cornstarch and water but the best way is to slowly poor water into the cornstarch to get the consistency you want. Stryder and I chose to add blue and yellow liquid watercolor and mix it together to make green... BOOM, science for toddlers! We talked about how it felt, wether it was hot or cold and how the colors looked when they blended together. We also used a cup to scoop and pour the goop! Stryder had so much fun playing with the Goop we ended up with a toddler melt-down when it was time for lunch!

In hindsight I would recommend doing this craft somewhere outside where you can hose everything down (it makes clean up significantly easier) or do it in the bath or shower! Not only is this fun, educational and easy but it was so much fun to explore this WITH my son and see his excitement as he played and learned. I hope your child shares the same excitement and joy as they try the activity!