Our Oobleck Investigation Grade 2/3

Yesterday, I read the book: Horrible Harry and The Green Slime.  I asked the students to listen for clues about what exactly the green slime is made of because we might be making an experiment in class.  I chose this book for several reasons: 

I wanted to:

• review the Comprehension strategy from The Daily Five: Check for Understanding by retelling, "Who" and "What" (Listening to Understand and Using Comprehension strategies)

• have an introduction to Procedural Writing for Language (Problem solving - reflecting and communicating what they learned)

• review the Mathematical concept of Measurement and Capacity

• summarize the Properties of liquids and solids (Grade 2) and what happens when you apply force and movement (Grade 3)

For the most part, it is easy to tell whether something is a liquid or a solid, except when it comes to Oobleck!  I thought it would be fun to pose the question: "Is Oobleck a liquid or a solid?"

I asked the children to recall how to make Oobleck and I wrote the ingredients on the board.  As I did this, I showed each ingredient as it looks in real life.

We measured the cornstarch and water and I handed out the materials and the students got to work.

They chose a colour to add to the water and then mixed the water with the cornstarch.

They found out that if they applied force by squeezing or poking it quickly, it became a solid...

but if they let it relax, it became a liquid.

Some of the experiments were too watery so we added more cornstarch!

It also made a huge mess but they had so much fun.

Today, we reviewed the instructions for making Oobleck and the students wrote, "How to Make Oobleck".  We also learned that Oobleck has properties of both liquids and solids.

If you would like to make Oobleck at home, here is the recipe: