Oobleck is a great, and kids LOVE it. My kids are no different. If you have never made it before Oobleck is a mixture of cornstarch and water. When played with fast it acts like a solid and when allowed to relax it acts like a liquid. When we saw a few youtube videos that involved dancing Oobleck we decided we needed to take our play to the next level. You will need to make the Oobleck a bit thicker than usual. We used about 2 cups of corn starch and 1 cup of water.
Once your recipe is ready let the kids play for a bit while you set up the next step. You will need a subwoofer, a thin metal cookie sheet, a MP3 of an audio test tone and food coloring. Place the cookie sheet onto the speaker of the sub, and pour in the Oobleck. You can download different test tones and play to see what works best for you. We used 40 Hz, 50 Hz, and 63 Hz, and found that we needed to turn the volume way up. We tried a number of different frequencies but these three seemed to work the best. We did a search for subwoofer test MP3. There are a number of different sites that you can use. Before you play the MP3 you will need to place your fingers on the edge of the cookie sheet with gentle pressure. It took a bit of playing to see what worked the best, but the results were amazing.
We decided to add food coloring to see what would happen. I love how the colors dance together and you can see all the layers of each color. This was the kids favorite part!
After we were all done I let the kids play with the colored Oobleck. They loved it, but a word of caution if stained colored fingers are not your thing. We giggled at the kids as they tried to wash the color off. I’m sure they will be sporting grey blue hands for a few days.
I will be linking to these parties.
Oooooo, this looks like fun! I’ve never heard of Oobleck. We are definitely doing this during the weekend. Thanks for sharing.
Tooo Fun!
ah we just made this with the kids I tutor but I have never called it Oobleck, just goo, haha. But I like your name better and I LOVE the dancing thing! thanks so much for linking up to handmade tuesdays @ ladybug blessings http://www.ladybug-blessings.com
Loving this idea and this whole site!! Well done!! Thank you for sharing such fun ideas, they even inspire this non-creative, tired out mom to attempt a few.
So fun to have you over to our hosue today. It’s been fun to get to know your family a bit. Kaleb is a sweet friend to Evan!
This looks like soo much fun! I can’t wait to try this with my little guys while it is snowing here in NJ! Thanks for sharing with the Pink Hippo Party! Can’t wait to see what you share next week!
I love Oobleck! Used to make it when I taught kindergarten. I really love all the different colors you used in it. Visiting from Fireflies and Jellybeans.
Jen
Hi,
I stumbled upon your website from the “Meet the Dubiens” blog. I love the ideas you have on your site. I am not able to pull up projects from your archives. Do you have to be a member to view these?
I am sorry that you are having trouble viewing my site. There is no membership, so you should be able to view everything. I will check into it, but let me know if you are still experiencing problems. Thanks for stopping by.
This is great….thanks for sharing! My son loves anything gooey or messy, so he will be thrilled to try this.
Very cool. This looks like a ton of fun. Thanks for linking up!
WOW!! This is so cool. Thank you so much for sharing this and for linking up to the handamde hog:) I lvoe it:)
xoxoxo Hanna
This is way too cool!!! Love it!!
Come see me http://willcookforsmiles.blogspot.com/
~your newest follower!
Yes! Yes! i want to do this right now!!! So awesome!
=)
What a great idea, so interesting! Thanks for sharing. Visiting from Smile monsters.
This looks like so much fun!!
If you haven’t done so already, I’d love to have you share this at my For the Kids Friday Link Party, going on now at SunScholars. Come join in on the fun!
http://sunscholars.blogspot.com/2011/03/for-kids-friday-4.html
That is SO awesome! I love all the designs and the mixtures of colors. And the coolest part is knowing that the designs were made by sound. That is just so cool! Great post! Stopped by from FJI.
Thank you for linking this up to WHASSUP WEDNESDAY!
Hope to see you next Wednesday:)
xoxokara
This has to be the most awesome thing I’ve seen in a long time! YOU definitely get a cool mom award! So happy you shared this!
Wow… I’ve never seen this stuff before. It is really cool! I bet it is super fun to play with! Thanks for linking up to my Catch a Glimpse party!
Great project, can’t wait to try it! Thanks so very much for sharing on Craft Schooling Sunday, I think you may very well have earned a feature with this one!
So fun! I’ll be featuring this week on Fun For Kids Finds.
Jo @ SmileMonsters
Wow, that’s fantastic!! I’ve made the oobleck before and only seen Videos of it dancing. How awesome you made it all work!! I’d love it if you’d link this up to my Marvelous Mess party here: http://marvelouslymessy.blogspot.com/2011/03/marvelous-mess-6.html
Bartholomew and Dr. Seuss would be very pleased!
Oh my, this looks fantastic. I’d never have thought to try this – thanks so much for linking to our carnival of music and song play.
Oh this is just wonderful!
That is SO fascinating! My son and I loved watching the video. I think adding the food coloring was a great touch! Thanks so much for linking up with Fun for Kids Friday. I hope you’re having a great week!
this is SO awesome! and your kids are adorable. can’t wait to show this video to my boys and then try!
Love that you made the oobleck dance—what kid wouldn’t love this???????
♥ this!!! thanks for sharing!!
Amber
Thanks so much for linking up with For the Kids Fridays at Sun Scholars. I can’t wait to see what you have to share this week! I’ll be posting the next party later tonight. Hope to have you stop by!
Can I just say: Wow!
[...] A big thank you to those of you who linked to our Carnival of Music and Song play. When I get chance between bouts of applying calamine lotion I’ll make a new button to add to the sidebar to store all our music ideas. There were a fabulous range of ideas shared. Did you see Mermaid’s homemade orchestra and Tammy’s dancing oobleck /gloop? [...]
Oh my! This looks FUN FUN FUN! How brilliant and what a great way to play with colours. Love.
Thank you for linking up to Kids Get Crafty – lovely to see you there!
Maggy
Very interesting, never heard of this before. I saw you at Saturday Spotlight by Craft Envy.
My blog is having it’s first linky party this weekend. I would love for you to add this post: http://koolbeenz-blog.blogspot.com/2011/03/funky-fresh-friday-1.html
Awesome!!! I don’t have a subwoofer though and really want to try this out. Do you have any ideas for another way to make it work or how to get a cheap subwoofer?
you said you need a subwoofer… what size and what did you hook it up to? I don’t know anything about subwoofer other then my brother has one I’m sure he’ll let me borrow but I need to know what else I’ll need to make it work. Thanks!
I dig this site
Not sure this posted before but I really like this website
This is a fantastic website!
We just made Oobleck yesterday and a reader sent me this link. Sooooo cool!!! Love this.
This is a non Newtonian fluid, if you want to start teaching science with the fun. (Ketchup is one, too.) They’re very interesting and fun
Love Oobleck and am so going to try this.
Btw, a tip I found out by mistake when using food coloring. To get the dye off your hands, simply use laundry detergent. Idk if it works for all types/brands, but I use Tide in powder form and it works like the charm. The granules help with the scrubbing and there is no dye left anywhere on your hands after you rinse them off
Taught preschool for 14 years and this was always the favorite !! We used to call in goop
so much fun for hours for any age!
[...] Dancing Oobleck {Housing a Forest} [...]
This is awesome. We’re going to do this today! Thanks!!
I love oobleck! Never heard of making it dance. Awesome and must try soon. Your kids are precious, too! Thanks for the idea and video!
WOW.. that is so incredible! Never seen something like that before. Definitely bookmarking this!
The goo that you make that’s solid to liquid it teaches the Law of the scientific name “Plasticity”. The goo itself is called also plasticity. Then the teaching of soundwaves makes it a even more fun hands on science lesson. I love the food color added makes it more interesting to the eyes.
[...] is dying to try this dancing oobleck experiment. Related Posts:Oobleck recipebook bonanza – welcome with lovescripture journal [...]
Trying to figure out how my son can do this for his science fair! What a great project!
So funny… when I was little this was a dessert my dad made for us, cornstarch, water, food coloring and sugar – served hot! My grandfather from El Salvador made it for him when he was little.
What did you use for the vibration?
Nevermind just read the post duh! LOL sorry for the dumb question
That is pretty awesome!!! The kids decided we MUST try this for ourselves. Now all I need is a woofer…
how thin was your cookie sheet? we couldn’t get it to dance at all.
I couldn’t get it to dance either!
We could not get it to work when we were playing music, but once we started playing audio test tunes it worked. Try goggling a sub woofer test MP3. We had to play with the frequency a bit, but it was worth it. Hope with helps. Good luck.
Its a cool idea really fun and everything, but your kids will be hard of hearing by the time they are 30. You should not have your head in a subwoofer like that for fun. Trust me, when he was in high school my husband used to play music in his truck and had a subwoofer right behind his seats. He’s now 32 and is already complaining about his hearing.
Thanks for your concern. I would be worried too if the kids were playing with the oobleck and sub woofer for hours on end like i’m sure your husband played his music. We enjoy learning new things and experimenting. This was a fun experiment that we enjoyed playing with, but not something that we do on a regular basis. Thanks again for your concern.
Could you please provide an actual link to the test tone you downloaded. I cant seem to find the plain test tone, just music. We have a pretty weak subwoofer, so the continuous tone would probably work. Thanks!
This is so cool! We’ve made the “goop” but never made it dance. Who knew!!!???
What kind of subwoofer do you use? i’m confused at what kind, and then what kind of cord you need to connect the mp3 to the subwoofer! Help!!
Wow! This is very cool. We have done this experiment at Steve Spangler Science but have not tried it with food coloring. Great idea.
Where was this great stuff when I was growing up???
I especially love the colors jumping around & mixing together.
What a wonderful idea & who cares if the color stains your fingers for a few days! Skin So Soft will probably take off the color for the squemish ones! LoL
I am a day care teacher and and my chilldren love to make playdough and Dancing Oobleck and messes.This looks like it woud be a fun way that the chiildren could experiment with the Oobleck and see all the things it can do and make a mess at the same time.
I am a preschool science teacher and Dr. Suess has a story book called Oocleck!! fun to read before making a batch!
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Well, I am just new to your blog site and just spent about an hour lurking and reading. I think I will frequent your site from now on after going through some of your posts. I will definitely learn a lot from them. Thanks one more time. Regards, Steve.
Sadly, I don’t have a subwoofer to try this. Thank you so much for sharing. I think it is a great idea, and included a linkback to this post in my blog post about the 5 senses. Here’s where you can find your linkback: http://sonshineclassicalacademy.blogspot.com/2012/02/five-senses.html
That’s awesome!!!
how awesome!!! I can’t wait to try with my stepson!
hugs! Kim @ Party Frosting!
Now that was cool! That would be fun to do with my Cub Scouts, they’d love it! Thanks for the post!
This looks like so much fun! It reminds me of Hexxus from FernGully!
Congrats! This was pinned in our weekly scavenger hunt on Pinterest receiving the most pins! It earned you a feature on our blog: http://www.kidscreativechaos.com/2012/04/pin-it-online-scavenger-hunt-4232012.html
You are obviously a genius! Love this.
question….we are trying to do this and haven’t had any luck!!
can you give any suggestions we can try? Have done the 2:1 ratio, changed cookie sheets, used downloaded sounds and ones from a frequency controller (borrowed from a science teacher), blown 2 speakers…made it thicker and thinner in both consistency and amount over the speaker!
Any ideas would be great! Thanks…