How to Make Slime Into a Groovy Pete the Cat Activity
Today we’re sharing a fun counting book along with an easy yet engaging Pete the Cat activity.
When you play with this sleek yellow slime you won’t want to put it down again. It’s filled with bright, smooth plastic buttons clink together pleasantly. You can s-t-r-e-t-c-h the slime out and watch some of the buttons pop out. Pick up a few buttons, and use them to stamp impressions into the slime. Then, watch as the impressions slowly “melt” away.
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It’s the perfect slime companion to one of our favorite Pete the Cat books. Pete the Cat and His Four Groovy Buttons (affiliate) is about how everyone’s favorite cool cat loses buttons off his yellow shirt, but just “keeps on singing his song.”
Like all Pete the Cat books, the story features easy-to-read rhythmic language and inviting illustrations. Readers count down from four to zero as Pete loses button after button. I keep getting Pete’s song stuck in my head from watching this video the publisher made.
How We Ended Up Making Slime (and a couple suggestions)
I’ve been putting off trying a slime activity. Even before Hurricane Harvey hit us, it sounded like more mess than I needed in my life.
At the same time, my kids were looking for something fun to do a few weekends ago. Slime seemed like an activity for all ages, and I was right. In fact, Liam, my oldest, played with his the longest.
For our first batch, I added really fine glitter. What a mess! Every time we played we got glitter on our hands and surfaces.
Then, when we went out to buy more glue, I spotted a cheap pack of bright plastic buttons on an end aisle display.
Book nerd that I am, I instantly thought it’d be fun to make a Pete the Cat activity with them.
We made traditional slime because I already had Borax on hand, leftover from our crystal ABCs. I was concerned about safety but just kept checking that no one’s hands were getting irritated. In the end, though, we had zero skin issues.
However, if I were doing this activity solo with a group of preschoolers I’d probably opt for a yellow taste-safe slime just to keep it stress-free.
Turning Slime into a Pete the Cat Activity
For this batch of slime, we carefully followed Steve Spangler’s instructions. Before adding the borax, we mixed in drops of yellow food coloring to get a color that matches Pete the Cat’s yellow shirt.
We added enough borax solution to get a fairly stiff but still slowly stretchy consistency. If the slime is too gooey the buttons won’t pop in and out easily.
Once the slime was completely mixed and ready for play, we added the buttons.
Cleanup was a breeze. Buttons are a whole lot easier to deal with than glitter, that’s for sure! The slime part wasn’t that messy. I just rinsed the bowl and spoon and put them in the dishwasher, then easily wiped off the table with a sponge. I put the leftover slime into a zip top bag. We keep getting it out again – because it’s just so hard to keep our hands off it!
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