Valentine Sensory Play: Frozen Oobleck
It’s time for more valentine sensory play! This time we’ve made frozen oobleck with a Valentine’s Day theme. The texture of this material changes as it melts. It’s cold and squishy and tons of fun! Affiliate links are used in this post.
Valentine Sensory Play: Frozen Oobleck
The first time we made frozen oobleck blue in color. This time it had to be pink for Valentine’s Day.
You’ll Need:
- Cornstarch
- Water
- Liquid watercolors
- Glitter (optional)
- Letter tiles – We used Bananagrams
(affiliate link)
How to Make the Frozen Oobleck:
- Add about 1/2 cup of cornstarch to a large bowl.
- Slowly add up to a 1/2 cup of water. I usually don’t need all of the water. Mix until you get the consistency you desire. If you add too much water, just add more cornstarch. (Kids can help with this step.)
- Add liquid watercolors. You could also use food coloring, but it has the potential to stain. Watercolors are usually washable.
- Pour the oobleck into heart molds. We used this Silicone Heart Mold Pan
(affiliate link).
- Add letter tiles to spell words. Aiden place a 3-5 letter word in each heart.
- Place the molds in the freezer for at least a few hours.
The frozen oobleck is a solid. As the oobleck melts, it’s texture and consistency changes. It will start to act like regular oobleck. It will feel like a solid when you press on it, but drip like a liquid when you let it go.
Place the frozen hearts in a large baking dish or container. You may also want to cover your play area as the oobleck can get messy.
Aiden decided to add hearts and animals to his frozen oobleck hearts. He chose pink and red animals to keep with the valentine theme.
He was engaged in this activity for a long time playing with the dragon, pigs, cardinal, maple tree, octopus, fish, and hearts. Isn’t the dragon adorable?
It was also Aiden’s idea to add letter tiles to the oobleck before we froze it. He chose some words to spell (Aiden, Daddy, Mama, cat, sat, and rat) and placed the letters in the hearts. As the hearts melted, he recovered the letters and spelled the words again.
Eventually, all of the hearts melted and he had a pink oobleck with letters to play with.
Aiden asked that I take a picture of the oobleck dripping from his hands. So fun!
The Science Behind It
Oobleck is a non-Newtonian fluid, so it doesn’t behave like a “normal” liquid. It has properties of both a solid and a liquid depending on the amount of stress applied. When stress is applied, the cornstarch and water mixture acts like a solid (your hand can’t go through; you just squish it like play dough). When constant stress is not applied, the mixture acts like a liquid and it drips off of your hands.
More Valentine’s Day Activities
- Fizzy Valentine Play Dough is a soft and squishy dough that fizzes and bubbles when you add vinegar.
- Valentine Soap Foam Letter Search is a wonderful bubbly sensory experience. Add letters to the soap foam to practice letter recognition, letter sounds, reading, or spelling.
- Our Valentine’s Day Edible Play Dough is perfect for toddlers.
- See our collection of Valentine’s Day Science Experiments and Activities.
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