Learn how to make goop with cornstarch and water. Did you know that if you mix these two ingredients you get a magical and wonderful substance that can take on two forms. It can be hard and it can be liquid. Learn how to make goop or in some places in the world how to make oobleck in this simple tutorial
How To Make Goop
Goop is one of my favorite sensory activities for babies as well as toddlers, preschoolers and elementary students. You’ll be surprised by what cornstarch and water can create. Children can’t seem to get enough of playing with it. Trust me, even the adults can’t keep their hands off!
Goop Recipe
- 2 cups of cornstarch
- 1 cup of water
How to make oobleck: The ratio is approximately 2 to 1. How much you make will be determined by your sensory table size. Start with 2 cups of cornstarch and then mix in the water. If you can’t grasp it into a ball like substance add another tablespoon of cornstarch. If it isn’t liquid enough.. add some water.
Sometimes we put the oobleck on a tray, sometimes on the large storage tote and other times straight up on a plastic table if there is a little lip there to keep everything from falling.
Favorite supplies for goop
Please note that affiliate links may be used in this post.
- Large storage tote – we sometimes put the oobleck on here.
- Cute mini colanders
Cornstarch and Water
Today we had some very very messy fun! We mixed cornstarch and water (which is known as Maizena in some parts of the world) and mixed it to create a fun and unique texture that is sure to keep kids (and adults) busy!
It was such a beautiful day outside so I took this opportunity to introduce this activity to A. (D has done this quite a few times already and has loved it every time.)
What is great about this activity is that you are exposing them to a different texture than what they are normally used to. Surprisingly A didn’t find it weird and had a ball!
I added some large buttons into the mixture so that the kids could search for them… and A could practice her pincer grasp by picking them up.
For those of you that attempt this with young kids please keep your eye on them at all times… buttons can be a chocking hazard…. I chose to use very large buttons because of this but as you can see, I had a very close eye on my 1 year old.
Aalz kept trying to eat the mixture… but that was fine since this was a taste safe sensory activity… its actually a good cure for a baby’s running tummy…
D would run his finger through the mixture and pick it up and watch the liquid ooze down his fingers… This mixture looks a little hard but when you touch it.. it melts.. its pretty cool if i do say so myself!
He also liked playing with the maizena(cornstarch) powder and throwing more powder into our mixture.
Then he covered Mickey mouse and friends…
This is what Aalz looked like afterwards….. wow… but I just put her in the bath and she was all clean. 🙂
While this is one of the messiest activities that we have done I can say in all honesty it was also one of the best and most fun activities ever!
What is Oobleck?
I constantly receive e-mails with the question, How do you make Oobleck? Oobleck is cornstarch and water mixed together. It goes by many names including goop and makes for a fun experiment.
I hope you enjoyed learning how to make goop!
You can find more sensory recipes and activities below:
- The best play dough recipe
- Shaving Cream Painting
- Fluffy Slime Recipe
- Fun Science activities for preschoolers
- Do a simple volcano science experiment
Rebecca
This is an awesome idea Nadia! I am definitely going to do this sometime this summer.
Ticia
Oh, how very very fun! That first picture is so wonderful.
jennoreilly
This looks awesome! If it doesn't rain tomorrow I know what we'll be doing!!
MaryAnne
What fun – and the perfect outdoor activity!