Now you may be asking why a bunch of excavation fanatics would be blogging about slime...

 

Well it's because slime is a really cool excavation material!

 

When most people think of excavations, they immediately think of a plaster style excavations that need to be chiseled away to reveal the treasure inside. Although admittedly this is one or our favorite excavation styles, an often overlooked and equally awesome excavation style is slime!

 

Slime is easy to make, versatile, inexpensive, and tons of fun to pull, stretch, and let ooze through your fingers. But slime becomes even more awesome when you hide awesome little treasures inside!

 

For instance, we love hiding fossils in slime in our Dinosaur Discovery Excavating Adventure which you can check out here:

 

We use food coloring to turn boring old slime into red lava slime and black tar pit slime that we then load with an amazing assortment of fossils! Now you can do the exact same thing at home with our super simple slime recipe and add your own fossils or pretty much whatever you want to the slime to create a fun excavation activity.

 

This activity lends itself well to individual exploration, classroom activities, homeschool lessons, birthday party fun and more. Simply make your slime and hide an item that aligns with the theme of the lesson or party!

 

 

Here is what you will need:

 

1/2 cup white Elmer's School Glue
1/2 cup water
1 teaspoon Borax Powder, plus 1 cup water

1 Gallon ziplock freezer bag

The items to be excavated
Optional: Food coloring, paint, glitter and other fun ways to customize your slime to fit your activity. 

 

1. Pour the glue and 1/2 cup water into the ziplock bag and mix well. Add food coloring, glitter, or paint at this time and mix together. Set aside.


2. In a separate bowl, combine 1 cup warm water and the Borax powder and mix until the powder is dissolved.


3. Add two tablespoons of the Borax solution in the ziplock freezer bag and mix until slime begins to form. Add additional Borax solution one tablespoon at a time if you need to thicken your slime. 


4. Put the slime in a container and tuck the items to be found inside. 

 

5. Allow the kids to dive in and have fun excavating the super simple slime and discovering the treasures inside!

 

 

Here are just a few examples of some simple spins you can put on slime and use it to create an entertaining and educational excavation activity:

 

Ocean Excavation: Blue slime filled with small plastic ocean animals to discuss ocean topics.

Dinosaur Dig: Slime filled with little plastic dinosaurs to discuss dinosaurs, fossils, and more. 

Slimy Swamp Exploration: Sticky green slime filled with little plastic frogs, snakes, lizards, etc to discuss nature, habitats, and more. 

 

 

If you love excavating as much as we do, be sure to check out our Excavating Adventures monthly subscription by clicking the link below and get an awesome new excavation delivered each month loaded with rocks, minerals, gemstones, fossils, and more!