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Soapy Slime FUN!!

This activity was FUN, REALLY FUN!!

Kids love to get messy, it comes with being a kid as they explore their natural curiosity about the world around them.  Messy-sensory play provides so many opportunities for learning, development and growth.  Soapy Slime is a great mixture to encourage and promote this  messy play with kids.

How to make Soapy Slime?


We have made Soapy Slime before which was around Christmas time last year and we pretended it was imitation snow.  You can read more about this activity here: Sensory Play with Fluffy Christmas Snow.

This time we made two different colours, yellow and red with the intention of creating a new colour, orange when we mixed the two colours together.

To make Soapy Slime you will need 1 cup of Soap Flakes, 3 cups warm water, food colouring, large mixing bowl, large container or tray and an electric beater.  You can find soap flakes at your local supermarket in the washing powder isle.

As you beat the water, food colouring and soap flakes the mixture multiples, so I placed the large bowl on top of our container to catch the over flow.

Let’s Play 


We had scoops and funnels to play with the soapy slime but the kids seemed to prefer their hands.  I never mentioned anything about the two different colours mixing together, I left this for them to discover and they did in time as the two colours became one giant blob of orange soapy slime.

Let’s Get Messy 

Sensory play with soapy slime is a great opportunity for kids to explore and use descriptive words.  Words to describe what they are experiencing, their senses and what they were feeling; slippery, slimy, soft, squishy and heavy and what it smells like.

Let’s Learn 

WHY MESSY-SENSORY PLAY IS IMPORTANT? 

Messy play is important for young children, giving them endless ways to develop and learn. All types of play are essential for children’s development and early learning. Play helps children to develop and improve their gross and fine motor skills, co-ordination and concentration.  Also how to work co-operatively and collaboratively, use all their senses to discover and explore their environment, and develop their imagination, creative thinking and ability to problem solve and experiment with solutions.

Tips to consider and don’t stress the mess:

This activity looks very messy, well that is because IT IS! This can be understandably overwhelming for some parents but clean-up is quite easy if you plan ahead.  Take the activity outdoors in a large tub, that way when finished playing all you need to do is hose everything off, even the kids!!  This can be all part of the fun and experience!  I also put my kids in their old clothes, no shoes and an apron which provided some protection.  Have a towel handy for any accidents when kids forget they have soap on their hands and put it in their eyes.

Have fun!!

For more Sensory Play Ideas <CLICK HERE>

17 thoughts on “Soapy Slime FUN!!”

  1. Cheryl Bennett

    Thank you for this wonderful website. I look forward to using some of your amazing ideas with my grandson
    and working with kids at school.

  2. You can make your own soap flakes by grinding soap up fine in a food processor. This is basically making your own shaving cream!

  3. i am very interested in making this for my early childhood class..i was reading the instructions and i was wondering do you put the food coloring in with the soap flakes and water or after? and do you only put a few drops in or the bottle?

  4. We played in the dirt and the mud. Nothing like good old fashion mud pies to learn all of this also – Sand boxes are great. Kids do get dirty and they love the feel of squishy sand and mud between their toes.

    1. Hi Sara, I have kept our soapy slime for no longer than 3 days as we had over used it but I am sure it could last longer by placing plastic cling wrap over the container to prevent it from drying out. good luck 🙂

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Picture of Hi and welcome to Learning 4 Kids!

Hi and welcome to Learning 4 Kids!

My name is Janice and I am an Early Childhood Teacher in Australia.

I have a strong passion and love for teaching and creating meaningful learning experiences for my students. What I love most is watching children discover in those amazing light bulb moments. I hope Learning4kids brings you some useful ideas.

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