Hi friends! You may have noticed that I’ve been a little scarce this week- I’ve been running a fantastic messy art camp at our cooperative preschool! It has been incredibly fun, and as a result, the twins and I are incredibly tired. However, we did muster up enough energy this afternoon to test out a new paint recipe…taste-safe slime paint!
Taste-Safe Rainbow Slime Paint
The idea for slime paint actually came from my art camp kiddos- I brought in some of our reusable bubbles to demonstrate and they asked if they could use the slimy substance to paint with. Since I’m working with a group of 15 children ages 2-5, I wanted to be sure any slime recipe I used was taste-safe just in case some of the littler ones decided to sneak a bite. We tried out the idea at home and it was a keeper- we’ll be trying it out on a much larger scale tomorrow. Although this recipe is safe for tasting, it doesn’t have any ingredients that taste good. I don’t typically use art or sensory mediums that are appealing to the tastebuds of young children because I don’t want to actively encourage eating of art supplies when children are still learning what is acceptable to taste. Plus, when my twins were younger, any time I used something edible and tasty for play, they tended to want to gorge rather than explore. Please use your own judgment when choosing activities and play recipes for your children- YOU are the expert on what is most appropriate for them!
It only took a few minutes to make four different colors of slime paint. I wasn’t really planning on taking photos of the paint today, but it turned out so COOL that I couldn’t help myself! To give the twins a fun surface to paint, I pulled out our large acrylic sheet and leaned it against a table. This paint would be really fun on a mirror, too. We haven’t tried it yet on actual paper, but I suspect that slime paint makes a better process art activity than something to use to make a keepsake painting.
The twins (age 3.5) were completely fascinated with our slime paint. They enjoyed the sensory elements of the paint- lots of squishing, rubbing, smearing, and poking. They also enjoyed mixing the different colors together to see what they could create.
Sydney announced that her side of the canvas was a “rainbow wonderland” complete with an ocean and a candy store. I love that their imaginations were sparked by the slime paint, too!
Rainbow Slime Paint Recipe
If you’d like to make your own taste-safe slime paint, you will need the following ingredients:
- 3 1/2 cups water
- 5 teaspoons of psyllium fiber supplement*
- food coloring
*The most commonly known psyllium fiber supplement is Metamucil, which is generally orange. If you are ok with just orange paint, Metamucil will do just fine. If you’d like to be able to color your paint, you’ll need to buy a generic store brand unflavored fiber supplement (be sure the active ingredient is psyllium). You should be able to find this in most stores right next to the Metamucil. I used the Wal-Mucil brand from my neighborhood Walgreens.
In a small saucepan, stir your psyllium fiber into your water until dissolved. Be sure to break/mash up any clumps that form before heating. Heat for about 5-7 minutes (or until you reach the desired consistency) over medium-high heat. Your slime will be hot, so be sure to let it cool before touching! I divided my slime paint into four bowls so I could create different colors. It only took a few drops of food coloring to make the vibrant colors you see in the photos. Although food coloring is notorious for staining, we didn’t end up with any stained fingers (or arms or hair or foreheads…) but you may want to be cautious with clothing just in case. Don’t say I didn’t warn ya 😉
When we took our masterpiece outside to rinse off, we noticed how vibrant the colors became with the sun shining through. We’ll definitely be doing this outside tomorrow!
If you’d like to see how to make thicker, more “flubbery” slime using your psyllium fiber, check out Blog Me Mom’s Edible Slime recipe!
Developmental Skills
Process art is wonderful for all of the domains of child development- you can read more about the benefits of process art in our article Process Art in the Early Childhood Classroom. This activity also doubles as a sensory play activity - read about the benefits of sensory play in Sensory Play: Is This Really Necessary?
More Fun Stuff for You
If you liked this activity, check out our Galaxy Slime!
I love, absolutely LOVE all your DIY stuff and I read and looked but havent found anything please would you recommend the best way to store the galaxy slime to keep it reusable since you made it I want to make sure if you have a bettet way of keeping it please and thank you soooo much for all the WONDERFUL things you come up with and shareing them with us your GREAT
You are so sweet, Deborah! For the galaxy slime, if you store it in an airtight container or plastic bag it will keep for weeks or even months! We still have the original batch from the photos! If it gets sticky when you pull it back out for play, just add a touch more liquid starch and work it in. Thanks for reading!
What an awesome way to meld sensory play and art! I can see my kiddos loving this!
I really like that it won’t hurt if kids take a taste but it doesn’t taste good enough to eat. I think food is food and art supplies are art supplies and kids should learn from the beginning that you don’t eat art supplies! This must look and feel amazing as well and I have shared it on The Crafty Crow today