Three Ingredient Silly Putty {5 Minute Kid Craft}

All kids love silly putty.  It’s bendable, stretchable, moldable and gives them endless fun.  But guess what else it is?  Super easy (and cheap) to make!  All you need is a few ingredients plus five minutes and you are all set to have homemade silly putty.  I’m sure you remember making something like this in elementary school – I know I did – and now that I’m a mom I am pulling it out of my “awesome stuff for kids” file and sharing it with you!

Easy Silly Putty Recipe

There are only three ingredients in this recipe and it will take you less than ten minutes to make.  This is another great craft for the kids to make, just make sure you measure out the Borax for them so they don’t get it all over themselves.  You also might want to let your child wear something that they can get dirty so any dye mishaps won’t be too big of a deal.

Grab a large bowl, a spoon and measure out your ingredients.  You will need a full 8oz bottle of glue, 1/2 cup warm water and 1 teaspoon of Borax (you can find a huge box of this stuff in your laundry detergent aisle for around $4).  After everything is measured out squirt all the glue into your large bowl.  If you want, add a little food coloring.  Don’t worry about it staining your hands, once mixed in it is “stuck”.

In a separate container mix the water and Borax until it is dissolved.  Slowly pour it into your glue, mixing while you do.

The mixture will immediately start to come together and form a slime-like substance.

There will probably be some excess water, but don’t worry about that.  Grab all the slime from the bowl and knead it until it has a smooth and non sticky consistency.  (This will only take a minute or two).

After that, you’re done!  Judah was in awe of his creation when it all came together, and I’m pretty sure being able to play with something he actually made all by himself made it so much more special!

Want to make it more than just a ball of putty?  There are tons of different things you can do!

Things kids can do with silly putty:

• Having a party?  Set up individual putty creation stations for each child and let them make their own party favors!
• Hide beads or small trinkets inside and let your child find them (great for fine motor skills).
• Cut out shapes with cookie cutters and ask ask them what they are.  They can have each piece to add to a ball as they get them right.
• Using a play knife, get them to cut portions or shapes to strengthen fine motor skills and help learn to follow directions.
• Play a counting game by dividing it up and ask them to count the pieces.
• If you have different colored putty, divide each color up into a number of pieces and mix them all around.  Ask your child to group them by colors.

There are MANY more great things you can do with silly putty, but these are our favorites.

I hope you and your family love their new putty, and be sure to have a plastic bag or tupperware container handy to store it in so that it doesn’t dry out!