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Busy Baby Inside Play Sensory Play

Rainbow Oobleck

Rainbow Oobleck: a messy sensory activity to play with friends

Making rainbow oobleck in a messy sensory activity.

Oobleck is one of my most favorite sensory activities. It’s easy to make, simple to clean up, and really, really fun to play with. It’s messy play that I’m totally going to sell you on.

This round of oobleck was especially wild: four kids, two moms, five colors, and endless giggles. It was one heck of a toddler activity – messy play is always more fun with friends.

Rainbow Oobleck: a messy sensory activity to play with friends

Here’s how to make rainbow oobleck (it’s a snap!):

Materials
(this list contains affiliate links)

  • cornstarch
  • food coloring
  • under the bed storage tub
  • shower curtain liner (a makeshift toddler tarp)

Oobleck is a crazy substance. It’s not a solid, but it’s not a liquid. It has properties of both. It moves like a liquid but you can break it and hold it (like a solid). The recipe for oobleck is simple: Mix two parts cornstarch to one part water. I added food coloring to the water to make rainbow oobleck.

For this round of play, I made rainbow oobleck with 1/2 cup of cornstarch + 1/4 cup of water in each color. It’s the easiest to make – and we make it often!

Rainbow Oobleck: a messy sensory activity to play with friends

With two toddler and two babies, I decided to make oobleck for our play date. What a riot! To set it up, I first laid down my “toddler tarp” which is just a shower curtain liner that I keep on hand for projects. I love having this “toddler tarp”. I laid it down and set the project on top inside my favorite under the bed storage tub.  When we were done, the liner went right into the washer lickety spit. I don’t have many bright moments, but buying this was one of them. A rare stroke of genius.

Rainbow Oobleck: a messy sensory activity to play with friends

The kids went totally Gwen Stefani for this – you know, BANANAS. B-A-N-A-N-A-S. They loved it. They poured, smooshed, and explored the texture of this funny substance. They loved trying to mix the colors together, too.

Rainbow Oobleck: a messy sensory activity to play with friends

The toddlers (obviously) did the best. As for the babies, we had one “runner” and one “eater”. My baby was the eater one. But even with our runner, things stayed decently contained. A few fresh shirts, some wipes hands, and it was like this had never happened. The clean up is surprisingly easy and totally done in about 3 minutes. Heck, my white couch is only a few feet away from this mess fest and we came out spick and span.

Rainbow oobleck is a great rainy day activity and a great one for fun play dates. It’s definitely a crowd pleaser and this crowd gives it two major thumbs up.

Rainbow Oobleck: a messy sensory activity to play with friends

 


13 Comments

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Comments

  1. Chelsea @ Life With My Littles says

    January 19, 2016 at 6:51 PM

    I love this idea! And the shower curtain really is a stroke of genius! I’m definitely getting one as soon as we get home for doing our tot school activities!!!

    Reply
  2. Clare's Little tots says

    January 27, 2016 at 4:13 AM

    Such a great idea, we’ve only coloured gloop once so doing a rainbow of colours looks like lots of fun 🙂 #ToddlerApprovedTuesday

    Reply
  3. becky says

    January 27, 2016 at 6:24 AM

    I’m not very often a fan of cornstarch (the clean up stage and we have carpets!!) but this looks sooooooooooo fun! I think once the weather warms up we will do this outside my monsters will LOVE it!

    Thanks so much for linking up to #ToddlerApprovedTuesday, I hope you can join us again next week.

    Reply
  4. CJ Huang | Morsels of Life says

    January 28, 2016 at 1:52 PM

    This stuff is fun to play with, regardless of age! 😛 And your toddler tarp sounds like a great idea!

    Reply
  5. Christina @There's Just One Mommy says

    January 29, 2016 at 4:50 PM

    Oobleck is just one of those things that kids just love! It is hard to keep your hands out of it.

    I love your colors!

    Reply
  6. Erin @ Nourishing My Scholar says

    January 31, 2016 at 8:38 PM

    I have heard of Oobleck, but have never made it. This Oobleck looks like such fun, I’m going to have to order a big container of cornstarch! My sensory loving kid is going to have a blast with this stuff! #LearnandPlayLinkup

    Reply
  7. Adventures of Adam says

    February 1, 2016 at 6:44 AM

    I love gloop (as we call it) but have never thought of making a rainbow version – how colourful!
    Thank you for linking up to #ToddlerFunFriday

    Reply
  8. Jennifer | Deliberate Homeschooling says

    February 1, 2016 at 2:47 PM

    I love oobleck – haven’t made it for a while though.

    You’ve inspired me!

    Thanks for sharing (and for linking up to the #SHINEbloghop).

    Wishing you a lovely day.
    xoxo

    Reply

Trackbacks

  1. Activity Supplies You Need to Own - Busy Toddler says:
    January 21, 2016 at 6:22 AM

    […] and messy/sensory play wouldn’t be as achievable. Need to see this tub in action? Try my rainbow oobleck, pouring station, and rice […]

    Reply
  2. 8 Messy Play Date Activities - Busy Toddler says:
    February 4, 2016 at 6:16 AM

    […] RAINBOW OOBLECK […]

    Reply
  3. Toddler Fun Friday #45 - My Bored Toddler says:
    February 5, 2016 at 3:55 PM

    […] Rainbow Oobleck from Busy Toddler […]

    Reply
  4. 13+ Rainbow Activities for Spring - Crafty Kids at Home says:
    March 3, 2017 at 9:22 AM

    […] really messy with this gooey Rainbow Oobleck. And don’t worry it’s super easy to clean up […]

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  5. Sensory Play! 101 Sensory Activities for Kids with Autism | Meraki Lane says:
    April 18, 2018 at 6:14 PM

    […] Rainbow Oobleck | Busy Toddler […]

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I'm Susie, a former teacher turned stay-at-home-mom. I'm all about fun, simple activities that can be set up in seconds but hold little attention spans for much longer.

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