::: gack
You have probably noticed that we like ooey gooey stuff at our kinder.
We wanted to move on from the goop and decided “gack” was the way to go.
Again we headed to Science Bob. He calls his slime, but we call soap flakes with water slime, so called ours gack.
Once again we wrote up a simple recipe for the children to follow.
1 scoop of PVA glue
mixed with 1 scoop of water.
Then add food colouring
and mix in 1 scoop of liquid starch …
then MIX, MIX, MIX!
It becomes beautifully blobby and improves with handling.
Make sure you use good quality liquid starch (fabulon’ ironing aide is good) as when Sherry tried to economise on a home brand product, the experiment was a flop!!
But when we got it right …
oh …
what …
fun …
we …
had!
Tags: food colouring, gack, PVA glue, Sensory, starch, water
I love Gack!! We have kids who love the feel and some not, so we let those sensory sensitive ones make it in a ziplock bag. I have to say, I love the containers you used int he first pictures. They were the perfect size and depth. Great Job!!! (again
)
I don’t know what we would call this stuff, because what we call “gac” (note that we Americans have once again come up with our own spelling) is made with glue, water and borax. We’ve never tried this particular recipe.
There are so many conflicting names for all this stuff that I just let the kids name it themselves each time we make it. Their names are so much more descriptive and creative! =)
::: Tom our ‘gack’, your ‘gac’ and everyone’s ‘gak’ is probably all the same, we just substitute ‘borax’ with ‘fabulon’ because we can’t find ‘borax’ anywhere. We tried ‘dry starch’ which comes in a box but it was a disaster! I don’t know how much ‘starch’ there is in ‘fabulon’ but it worked really well!
I used to find borax in the laundry aisle when I was home in Australia. It was usually high on a shelf. A chemist might have it too. It would be cheaper than fabulon probably. Great pics! My kids are the ‘sensory challenged’ kind so I probably won’t be making this one….
Funnily enough Catherine a friend of Sherry’s, said just this week end, that he bought it in Safeway … we shopped in Coles!
We make this at Kinder too. We call it flubber. It works really well with clear glue (like glue sticks with the sponge tips) too. The kids love to hold it up and watch it slowly strech down until it falls in a pile. They also love rolling it into a ball and bouncing it.
I thought this was called flubber but like has been said we all have different names! I made it with borax – from coles – (it should be in the laundry aisle) because I couldn’t find anything called ‘liquid starch’!
But… did you know you can roll it in a ball and bounce it??
Wow … we certainly rolled it into balls but didn’t think about bouncing it. Sounds awesome we’ll try it tomorrow!
Thanks everyone for the heads up on the ‘borax’ … that’s the last time I send Sherry shopping for supplies! hee! hee! hee!
My daycare group would make this everyday if I allowed it. We use the recipe with Borax and starch too. I didn’t think of useing clear glue. Great pics of the children enjoying this.
Looks great! Is the starch ok for the children to be touching though, I’m not sure I’d like my boy touching such a chemical- does anyone have an info on the toxicity? (Not being a downer just want info before I try it!)
Over the years my preschool aged boys have had the best time squeezing the mixture into small containers….and rolling around laughing at the resulting noise! Gotta love boys & toilet humour hehehehe!
You can find the MSDS (Materials Safety Data Sheet) here. Not sure if the link will work but type ‘fabulon MSDS’ into Google and you will get results. I would have thought that if its safe to put on our clothes and wear everyday then it would be safe to play with in such small quantities.
http://www.rb-msds.com.au/product/product_display.aspx?intProductID=19
Any luck on bouncing the gak?
hee, hee, hee, Miss Jojo!
Thanks for the information Jasmin
I think there may be a need for a big flat tub to walk in the gak! I can imagine it squishing between my toes!!
[...] Gack and Water Wall. Both of these ideas come from a wonderful Australian preschool blog, Irresistable Ideas for Play Based Learning. This is EXACTLY the kind of stuff I love doing with The Littlest Apple. If we lived closer, I would totally send him to this preschool. We’ve got a fence that’s just screaming for a Water Wall. Can’t wait to make one! [...]
Help! What are we doing wrong? Ours looks like water…. What type of PVA glue did you use?
Be sure to give them some markers with the gak, flubber, whatever you call it. When you do this you don’t need to add coloring to the mixture. It does ruin the markers so use old ones!
same as a previous comment I tried making it but its just liek water I mixed for like 1/2 hr what could I be doing wrong
is there different types of PVA glue ?? I used my hubby’s PVA wood glue LOL
::: THAT Rachell is your problem. Apparently PVA glues are different. Wood PVA is no good. You need to use a craft PVA!
how long does this concoction last for?
Does it need to be kept covered? Love the idea of pushing it into small containers. We are heading into a space interest area ATm and it will be great to make some “space/alien slime”
::: Lisa, gack tends to get more rubbery each day you keep it but ours usually only lasts for a few days, because it tends to get washed down the drain when the children wash their hands! Have you tried making slime? PERFECT for alien play … http://www.playbasedlearning.com.au/2009/11/slippery-slime/
Hi!
This is probaly a very very silly question but am just wondering what size the scoop is? A tea spoon, table spoon size?
Am really really wanting to make this for my 3-4 year olds I have a feeling it’s going to be a messy fun day!
::: Not a silly question at all Verity … We used a scoop from a box of laundry powder however you could use anything as long as the same size scoop was for each ingredient.
A really good answer, full of ratialonity!
Love all your ideas – and not wanting to be a spoilsport – but be aware that borax is an extremely toxic materal that should not be used with young children – researched this and had to get rid of our flubber / gack. Tried the fabulon instead.
::: Hi Trish and thank you for sharing that information. Fortunately the Fabulon works really well in gack.
Borax is in liquid starch, thats why it works. Fabulon, Stay puf all are Liquid starch. Ive read Borax is as toxic as detergent. It isnt a chemical but a mined mineral
::: Thanks Dandi. You’re right about the Borax and some people prefer not to use it. We really like the results using the fabulon.
Help, just trired this or the first time and it is sooooo runny. Threw out the first one as I thought I had it wrong, but getting the same result the next time. Using Titebond wood glue, fabulon and water. Any ideas of how to fix it? Ps based in Australia, not sure if ingredients have different properties in other countries. Thanks for any tips as really want to do this. Katrina
::: We’re not familiar with Titebond wood glue Katrina. We always use PVA glue … perhaps that is the problem.
Well mine flopped. I read this couldn’t find the liquid starch so went and bought borax. It was only to be used with my daughter so figured I would supervise closely. I have a large amount of craft glue which is quite old. Mixed up carefully according to the recipies I saw. Mixed it up and oh dear it produced a watery substance with blobs of thick rubber like dots. Tried again same result. So-I gave up. Guessing glue may be old…inhereted.
Any ideas? Is it just old glue? It did react but not nice slimy stuff.
::: Hmmmm … I’m sorry Bronwyn but I’m not too sure why. Perhaps it is the glue. We just find our PVA works every time!
We made Gack today and oh what joy the children had. The fabulon liquid starch worked a treat.
We did however come across the smae issues with the PVA glue using three different brands to get the right result.
In the end we found that the EC brand of kids washable PVA glue ( available from educational experience) with a pink label worked best.
::: Thanks for the tip Jes! So glad you enjoyed it.
