How to Make Chia Seed Oobleck Slime for Sensory Play

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Long have we known of and explored the amazing sensory substance that is Oobleck. When wondering how to take glorious oobleck to the next level, the texture of kids chia seed pudding came to mind. Then was born, Chia Seed Oobleck Slime!

How to Make Chia Seed Oobleck Slime for Sensory Play

Oobleck has been a part of our play for years now. There is so much to love about oobleck! Read about how it changes from liquid to solid and the science behind the medium here!

Adding the chia seeds to the mix, make the normally runny substance stringy and gloriously sticky! It can be mixed beforehand or during play. We love to mix the seeds into the oobleck while playing to witness and experience the transition from oobleck to stringy, sticky chia seed oobleck slime!

What you need to make Chia Seed Oobleck Slime

1 cup water
1 1/2 – 2 cups cornflour (bake your flour to make it taste safe- learn how here!)
Bowl
Spoon
4 tablespoons Chia Seeds
Food colouring (optional)

You could supply flower petals, leaves, nuts seeds and all sorts to potentially go into the brew.

How to make Chia Seed Oobleck Slime

This is quite a flexible recipe. Why not present it as a magical potion? Each of the ingredients could be placed in individual bowls and let your magician create their own concoction!

You could make this taste safe sensory play medium ahead of time or mix it fresh and watch it transform as the chia seeds swell and coagulate.

We like to mix the corn flour and water in the bowl, using the spoon, to create our lovely oobleck before adding the chia seeds. Doing this, draws out the play longer and watching the transformation is so interesting! It looks different and feels different too!

If you are using food colouring, add it to the water first to ensure an even spread.

How to play with Chia Seed Oobleck Slime

This sensory play medium is so versatile! There are so many ways to play with this substance.

Creating play experiences that both younger toddlers and older kids both find engaging and fun can sometimes be challenging. This is not the case with this sensory play activity.

One of the amazing attributes of Chia Seed Oobleck Slime is that it is taste-safe, making it suitable for younger toddlers and older small kids too!

Now, by all means, I am not suggesting to pass a spoon to your child and allow them to start eating it. However, if they were to ingest a little smudge here and there, these pantry ingredients shouldn’t pose a serious risk to their health.

Chia Seed Oobleck Slime

Some ways to play could include:

Alone in a bowl armed with just their hands
Use with cups and scoops
In a tray with trucks and cars to make tracks
Turn into a swamp with some toy frogs and natural branches, rocks etc
Make multiple primary colours and blend to create secondary colours (for example, blue and yellow make green, red and yellow make orange)
Add wooden blocks and build a wall
Use pebbles and sticks to create faces in the mix
Test density of different items to discover what sinks or stays on the surface

If you have a sensory avoider, why not place the gloop into a ziplock bag with some little bits and pieces. Your child can still experience the mix, textures, temperatures, sounds and explore without the threat of getting it on their hands. Who knows, their curiosity may lead them to open the bag and give it a little poke on their own merits.

Comprehension Questions

Sensory play offers so many opportunities for cognitive development. Asking open ended questions can really encourage your child to think, broaden their vocabulary and develop a deeper understanding of the activity.

Focusing on things they know as a foundation for your questions can allow them to feel more comfortable to grow their knowledge.

Here are some open ended questions that you could use while your littles ones are playing to help develop their comprehension

What do you think will happen when these ingredients are mixed
How long do you think it will take for us to get a result
When have you mixed things like this before
How does the mixture feel as you are stirring it
How do you think it is going to feel
What else could we add to the mix
Who else do you think would enjoy this activity
How could we make this smell better
What are you worried about happening while playing
How do you think you could make noise using the oobleck
What do you think would happen if we add more chia seeds
How do you think the chia seeds made the oobleck change
When we do this activity again, what would you like to do differently

Educational Benefits

Children are sensory learners. Through interactions with their environment, connections and pathways in their brains are forged. Sensory play engages a child’s sense of touch, smell, sight, taste and hearing; all so important for cognitive development.

Other educational benefits this activity can present, include:

Fine motor skills
Cause and effect
Explorative play
Imaginative play
Experimental play
Crossing the midline
Gross motor skills
Problem-solving skills
Logical thinking
Vocabulary
Higher-order thinking

Learning through play – it is so much more than just having fun!

We would love to see how your family enjoys this sensory play activity. It is so open-ended and versatile. Please feel welcome to join our Play Inspired Mum Facebook Community and share your experiences with the group!

Dani D x