Ooey Gooey Pumpkin Slime

Making slime is great fun – but what would happen if you used your leftover pumpkin guts to make slime? You’d get a super cool, pumpkin-seed filled, glittery, goopy batch of pumpkin slime! This recipe is so simple and foolproof – it works every time.

Try changing up the glittery or pumpkin seed elements to whatever you have in the house that reminds you of fall. You could even add a sprinkle of pumpkin pie spice to get a lovely scented slime (just don’t eat it)! From food coloring to fall foliage, there’s no end to the types of customizable slime you can make at home.

Ingredients

1/2 cup clear glue

1/2 cup lukewarm water

1/2 cup liquid starch

Optional:

Leftover pumpkin seeds and guts

Glitter (Note: Like we mentioned above, you can use anything that reminds you of fall!)

Instructions

1. Mix together 1/2 cup glue and 1/2 cup lukewarm water. Stir until well incorporated.

2. Add 1/2 cup of liquid starch, which is the slime activator. Mix well until slime begins to become solid, which should start to happen almost immediately.

3. Add optional ingredients, like pumpkin seeds, pumpkin guts, and glitter.

4. Have fun playing with your slime! Store in a sealed container for up to 4 days.

Tip: When you’re ready to part with your slime, throw it in the trash instead of down the sink.

What’s the science behind pumpkin slime?

When you combine glue and sodium borate (which is found in liquid starch), something called crosslinking happens and turns the mixture into more of a solid than a liquid. Glue is made up of polymers (you can think of polymers like rubbery spaghetti noodles that slide past each other), and sodium borate is made up of negative ions (which help things stick together).  When you add the sodium borate to the glue, the sticky ions help the rubbery noodles come together, and everything stiffens up. As a result, you get this fun textured slime!

Here are a few discussion questions you can ask the kids to think about:

• How is glue different from water? Why do you think we use glue to make slime, rather than water?
• What are other substances similar to the slime you just made?
• What would happen if you throw your slime against a wall? (Optional, of course.)