This Oobleck recipe is quick to whip up with just two ingredients. Then see our list of favorite ways to play with this amazing sensory material!
Updated June 2025
Oobleck is a completely mesmerizing material for kids to touch and play with. Since it’s just cornstarch and water (plus any color you want to add), it’s super easy and inexpensive to make. It’s also taste safe and non-toxic, making it a great sensory play material for babies and toddlers.
Sometimes it acts like a solid. Sometimes it acts like a liquid.
And, to add to the weirdness, oobleck acts differently from a normal liquid and differently from a normal solid.
How is that possible? Oobleck is a non-Newtonian fluid, meaning it is a pressure-dependent substance.
If you increase the pressure on the oobleck, it increases the viscosity or thickness. But if you poke at it quickly, it feels like a solid. And if you hold some in your hand, it will ooze out of your fingers like a liquid.
Since our first batch of sensory goop, we’ve made oobleck many other times.
Oobleck Recipe
Here’s our super easy oobleck recipe. Be sure to save and print this for future batches!
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How to Make Oobleck
Description
Learn how to make oobleck with just two ingredients. This recipe is easy to make and is a super fun sensory play material for kids.
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 to 2 cups cornstarch
- 1 cup water
- Food coloring
Instructions
- Whisk the food coloring into the water so that it colors the oobleck evenly.
- Start with 1.5 cups and add more if it is too runny. You’re looking for a consistency that is solid and then runs off when held in your hand.
- Pour your oobleck into a large bin for playing.
Now, for what to do with this fun, non-Newtonian fluid…
13 Super Fun Things to Do with Oobleck
- Play with it using your hands (of course!)
- Have a rainbow oobleck play group party (on Meri Cherry)
- Try color mixing with it! Either add the food coloring to white oobleck or mix two colors of the stuff together
- Let the goop drip through a strainer, a berry basket, or something else with holes
- Make dancing oobleck (on Babble Dabble Do)
- Add flowers and leaves to it to make nature oobleck (on Kids Craft Room)
- Drive toy cars through it (it’s just cornstarch, remember, and washes off easily)
- Make your goop glow in the dark (on Babble Dabble Do)
- Make galaxy oobleck (on Natural Beach Living)
- Use it for pretend play with toy animals or favorite figurines
- Try freezing it (on Inspiration Laboratories)
- Make fluffy oobleck! (on Fantastic Fun and Learning)
- Dribble and paint with goop on a sidewalk or driveway
P.S. If you have a corn sensitivity in your family, you can make this with arrowroot powder instead.
More Sensory Play for Kids
- How to Make Oobleck
- How to Make Butter Slime
- How to Make Fizzy Potions for Fun Sensory Play
- How to Make Fluffy Slime
- Shaving Cream Sensory Play Ideas for Kids
- The Ultimate Guide to Sensory Bin Materials
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