How to Make Floam {Without Borax}
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Floam, or slime made with foam, is a fun sensory activity for kids. This recipe can either be made with store-bought styrofoam or, if you have some leftover styrofoam cups, you can use those too.
Read on to discover how we took a few simple ingredients and turned them into some fantastic floam that captivated the kids all afternoon.
What You’ll Need
- Liquid starch
- School glue (you can use clear or regular)
- Styrofoam balls or styrofoam cups
- Popsicle stick
- Bowl to mix in
- Food coloring
- Toobs (optional)
What to Do
Begin by gathering your materials.
Next, in the event you are using styrofoam cups (we had one from some leftover ice cream so we simply washed it out and it worked well), you can either tear off tiny pieces from your cup (which is what we started to do – see photo below) or, you can grind it in a coffee grinder (which is what we tried next). The coffee grinder method was much easier and it made the styrofoam into more uniform and smaller pieces. This method did add a lot of static to the styrofoam but it was WELL worth the time we saved by not having to pick off tiny bits of styrofoam from the cup. 🙂
Okay, so now that your styrofoam has been prepped, you’re ready to make floam! In an effort to minimize the mess, we made our first couple batches of floam in ziplock bags but after a few batches we decided it was just as easy, if not easier, just to make the floam in a standard mixing bowl.
Begin by pouring one bottle of glue into your bowl or bag. Add a few drops of food coloring and either mix it with a popsicle stick (if you’re using a bowl) or seal your bag and squish until mixed.
Next, add your styrofoam. We used about a cup but you can use more or less, depending on how thick you want your floam.
Now, fill your bottle of glue with liquid starch and pour into your bowl or bag. Mix thoroughly. It should start to glop together. You may have some leftover liquid starch that doesn’t incorporate – that’s okay!
Next, rinse your floam with water (we rinsed ours several times) and knead it a bit more (about a minute or so) until it isn’t sticky. You’ll know it’s ready once it becomes one non-sticky glob.
Once your floam is no longer sticky, it’s time to play! The children had fun pressing it into cups, using cookie cutters, and incorporating various animal figurines.
That’s it! While it may seem intimidating at first, it really wasn’t as messy or as difficult as we first thought and after a few trial-and-error batches, we had it down to a science!
We also made a lavender scented slime that turned out really fun!
Have you made slime before? Let us know in the comment section below.
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