Slime is one of my favorite sensory materials for preschool age kiddos. It’s gooey and gross and just PERFECT for playtime. The addition of googly eyes takes this plain old blob of purple into a whole new world. It’s an alien, no it’s a monster… whatever it is the eyes add in even more fine motor elements. The slime itself is already a wonderful material to squish and squeeze( builds hand strength) and the eyes use pincer grasp and careful hand-eye coordination to add and take away. It’s such a wonderful Halloween sensory activity. You can use glitter glue for this recipe but we were all out, so I just grabbed some loose glitter. Here is how we made our slime monsters.
Gather your materials. You will need liquid starch, clear glue, glitter, red and blue food coloring, a spatula, a large bowl and LOTS of googly eyes in different sizes.
Here is the recipe:
1 Bottle of Clear Glue
1/4 cup of liquid starch
2 drops blue, and 2 drops red food color.
Pour your clear glue into the bowl and add your food color.
Add in the glitter.
Mix in your liquid starch about a tablespoon at a time. It should get really goopy and slippery. At this point, I put the camera down and knead the ever living life out of it. I like really stiff slime because I find it’s not as messy with a group of children.
Add in the eyes!
If you have a really young class like mine here are a few tips to enjoy this without it being a massive mess, especially if you have children who do not like gunk on their hands.
- Make a small batch like this – have a teacher or parent manning the station and invite children one at a time to play. Show them how to knead the slime so any little bits that stick to their hands get grabbed by the larger ball of slime.
- Tie long hair back!
- Once every child has had an intro then allow larger groups of 2-3 to explore with you.
- Taking the time to show each child how to get the slime off their hands helps avoid any little slime bits flying through the air as little hands try to get the slime off by shaking.
Books About Monsters
book lists contain affiliate links.
Monsters Don’t Eat Broccoli by Barbara Jean Hicks is a really cute book about what monsters will and won’t eat. They will eat wheels and tractors; they will not eat broccoli. My son got into the repeating refrain ” Fum, foe, fie, fee, monsters don’t eat broccoli!” In the end, the monsters are really a set of siblings with all sorts of food on their plates including broccoli. It was a fun way of opening up a talk about what foods we like and why trying new things is a good thing. Halloween is filled with treats, and I’ll sneak veggies in wherever I can including bedtime reading!
The Monster Princess by D.J. McHale is a story about a monster Lala who so wished she could be a princess only to discover in the end that being herself is even better. As I was reading this book, I was really hoping that the three real princesses that befriend Lala would have more depth and not be the stereotypical mean girls that they are. Even after the mean princesses humiliate Lala she does the right thing and saves them when they are in danger. This book had a very predictable feel to it, but I am 35 and have lived through mean girls on film many times and been on both sides of it in real life. To a young child, this story is fresh and filled with good messages about doing what is right even when we are angry and hurt, discovering that what we dream about being may not be all it’s cracked up to be as well as my favorite message that there are “All kinds of special.”
The Monster at the End of This Book by Jon Stone will be instantly recognizable to many of you. We didn’t grow up with Elmo ( well maybe some of you young whipper snappers did) we had Grover. Loveable blue monster and narrator of this story. This book is completely interactive in that Grover is speaking directly to the reader and asking them not to turn the pages. It put me in fits of giggles when I was a child but as a mom, I love the reminder to never judge a book by its cover.
Creepy Monsters, Sleepy Monsters by Jane Yolen is a sweet monster book with minimal text and very rich illustrations by Kelly Murphy. The story is really about the daily wind down and bedtime for two monsters. You and your child will absolutely relate to them on one page or another ( or all). These little monsters are just like our little monsters resisting bedtime, trying to avoid baths – well, you know the daily struggle. My daughter( at age 3) was not into the book, but my son liked it even though I’d gear it towards the 2-4 crowd. We chose our favorite monsters on each page and found interesting details like the recipe for tentacle soup on the page where the mom is making dinner. Cute, your child, will relate to it, and it’s not at all scary!
For many more monster books for kids check out our Monster Book Lists!
Natasha Forrester Campbell says
Quick question: do you make the batch ahead of time and then let the children play with it, or let the kids help measure and mix it?
Allison McDonald says
That’s a great question! You can have them help, I didn’t for this post because my kids are aging out of these activities ( and were at school) and I don’t photograph my students for blog posts. If you do I would still do much of the kneading yourself. It’s really a get in there and squish and pull and it can be messy, like REALLY messy with little helpers. My kids like adding ingredients, though.