Science Fun: Make Homemade Bouncing Balls

What kid doesn't LOVE playing with bouncy balls?

For years, I have seen this simple recipe floating around the web,

never really paying much attention to it....until now.

My girls, like most kids, have a gazillion balls at home.

What is it about them that is so enticing? 

When I asked the Lil Divas if they'd like to try making their own bouncing balls they starting jumping and down, yelling YES, YES, YES! I crossed my fingers and got the simple ingredients we needed, hoping this would work.

EASY HOMEMADE BOUNCING BALLS

What You Need:

Borax

corn starch

Elmer's Glue-All

warm water

food color (optional)

measuring spoons

2 bowls

What To Do:

Mixture #1 - 1st Bowl -

 Add 2 tablespoons of warm water

plus 1/2 teaspoon of Borax

and stir to dissolve the Borax as much as possible.

Add food color to this mixture if desired & mix.

Bowl #2 - 

Pour in 1 tablespoon Elmer's Glue-All

Add 1/2 teaspoon of the above Borax mixture

and 1 tablespoon corn starch

DO NOT MIX!

Let mixture stand for about 15 seconds

then mix the ingredients until it becomes too hard to do so.

You will be able to tell when the time is right -

it will get clumpy and combined together.

At that point, take out the mixture into your hand 

and quickly knead it in a circular pattern to form your ball.

(Think of when you make a ball with play dough.)

It starts out as a sticky, gooey mess

but it quickly starts to solidify so you must mold it quickly.

Once your ball has hardened - go ahead and bounce it!

Note: This will not give you the same bouncy effect as a store bought ball but it bounces a bit and the girls got a kick out of it.  We found it worked better off our play mat than the regular floor. 

We had quite a few fails before we got our balls shaped right so don't be afraid if you need to do this more than once. It is an experiment after all! The Borax mixture can be used for a few balls so as long as you have glue and cornstarch - keep molding! My tip is to be quick when forming your ball.

Be sure to store in a plastic baggie so you can play again tomorrow!

Have fun bouncing!

& don't forget to check out the rest of our Mad Science Week Fun.

Bern