This textured Halloween slime is such an amazing sensory experience. It will be the perfect addition to your Halloween activities for preschoolers this fall.
Related: Free Printable Halloween Countdown Calendar
I have been a fan of slime for so long now. There are just so many ways to create and play with it!
Plus, slime lets children explore countless early learning skills.
This crunchy floam slime is no different. You can adapt it for other holidays or preschool themes, and all of the learning involved will keep the kids entertained for hours.
Halloween Slime
There are a variety of options to explore when it comes to your preference of how to make slime with kids.
We’ve tried most of them, but tend to fall back to two favorite recipes – one with liquid starch and one with contact lens solution.
This crunchy orange slime uses the contact lens solution method, but you can definitely switch it out for your favorite slime recipe.
Halloween Floam Slime Ingredients
There aren’t many ingredients needed for this one. Here’s what you need:
- 4 ounce bottle of Elmer’s school glue
- 1/2 tablespoon baking soda
- 1/2 tablespoon contact lens solution
- Orange food coloring or liquid watercolors
- 1/2 cup green foam beads (ours are from this set)
You also want to make sure you have a mixing bowl, mixing spoon, measuring spoons, and a mat for the kids to play on.
We have a set of bowls and spoons just for science and sensory play. It helps to have a set dedicated purely to sensory activities because they tend to be on the messy side. This one’s no exception.
If you buy glue in bulk, like we do, you can just measure out the appropriate amount of glue.
How to Make Orange Slime
After you’ve gathered all of your ingredients, the next step is to make the orange slime. This will be the base of your Halloween slime.
Pour the glue into a bowl and then add the baking soda. Mix these two ingredients together well.
Related: Simple Bat Craft for Kids
Next, add the contact lens solution. Make sure that you’re using a solution that has boric acid or borate in it. This is the ingredient that works to activate the slime.
Stir everything together until the slime starts to form.
Then it’s time to knead the slime. This is a very important part of the process, as it melds all of the ingredients together.
Knead for a few minutes, until the slime reaches the consistency you prefer.
If the slime is too sticky, add a little contact lens solution (about 1/2 teaspoon at a time) and continue to knead.
Then it’s time to add the food coloring. I usually prefer to add the coloring to the glue, but this time around it was added later.
Knead the slime to spread the color around, adding more food coloring as you see fit.
Once the orange slime is made, add the foam balls and mix things up some more. Now you have your Halloween slime!
Halloween Slime Adaptations
As I mentioned earlier, you can definitely change things up with this slime.
If you don’t like the contact lens recipe, trying making it using liquid starch instead (like we did with our pumpkin slime).
You can also change the base color of your Halloween slime. Maybe you’d rather it be green or purple. That’s entirely up to you.
The foam beads add a fun texture to the slime, but you can always switch them out for Halloween sequins instead. Or leave the foam beads AND add the glitter for multiple texture variations.
This floam slime recipe can also be adapted for different preschool themes, holidays, or areas of interest. To do so, simply change up the color of the slime and the foam beads. Let the kids help decide what changes to make!
Playing and Learning with Slime
If you’re a regular reader of Fun-A-Day, you already know I’m all for playing for the sake of playing. Not everything needs to have a detailed lesson plan attached to it.
That being said, playing IS learning when it comes to young children. So I like to remind my fellow adults about the learning that’s inherent within many of our fun activities – including slime.
Here are some of the things children are learning and exploring with this Halloween slime:
- Measurement
- Chemical reactions
- Sight and touch
- Textures
- Vocabulary
- Language development
The above list doesn’t touch on all of the possibilities, but I thought that was a good start. Needless to say, children are learning quite a bit while making slime.
In terms of playing and interacting with the slime, each child’s play will look different. And that’s a good thing.
Some children will love stretching the slime to see how far it goes. I’ve had more than one kiddo in the past who wanted to see if the slime would stretch as tall as I am.
Other children just love poking the slime with their fingers. They watch as the slime slowly covers up the holes they make.
Related: How to Make Galaxy Slime
Still others will enjoy adding things to the slime – glass gems, more foam beads, small Halloween toys, etc.
Keep in mind, some children don’t enjoy the feel of slime on their skin. If that’s the case, you can consider placing the slime in a sealed baggie or a sensory bottle. This way the children can still play, but more on their own terms.
Slime Safety Tips
Slime is, inherently, a science activity.
As such it needs to be treated with respect and caution. This will ensure that the experience is both fun AND safe for everyone involved.
None of the materials, nor the end product, should ever be ingested.
Keep an eye out for any skin sensitivities. While I’ve never run into an issue with this, some children (and adults) might.
As will all of the activities here on Fun-A-Day, adult supervision is required.
Resources Made with the Preschool Teacher in Mind
I know how hard and time consuming it can be to come up with fun lesson plans for your students every year. That’s where Preschool Teacher 101 comes in!
There are tons of amazing resources available, including lesson plans and printables with an incredible variety of topics.
Click on the links above for more information about each resource or head over and check out their membership options today!
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