Super Bouncy Balls

By Laura Novobilsky of Come Together Kids

When I first heard that children could make their own bouncy balls, I thought it was too good to be true! The best part is that they’re so easy to make. A simple recipe translates to a day of summer fun.

Materials:

For each ball that you make, you'll need:

  • 1 T. white glue
  • 1/2 tsp. borax powder (can be found in the laundry detergent aisle of most grocery/department stores)
  • food coloring
  • 3 T. cornstarch
  • 4 T. warm water

Instructions

  1. Step 1In one cup, combine the warm water, cornstarch and borax. In another cup or bowl, put the glue.
  2. Next, add several drops of food coloring to the white glue and stir well.
  3. Give your water/borax/cornstarch mixture a good stir to combine all the ingredients (the cornstarch has a tendency to settle on the bottom).step 5 Then pour the water mixture into the colored glue.
  4. Stir and you'll see it immediately start to clump together. Stir a bit more until you have one big, slimy glob.
  5. Take the glob out of the liquid and begin rolling it between the palms of your hands to form a ball. It'll be sticky at first, so keep a paper towel handy to wipe off your hands occasionally. Soon a rubbery ball will form. (We found that just using our palms seemed to work better than using our whole hands and fingers.)
  6. step 5Once the stickiness is gone and you have a nice smooth ball, that's it! You can bounce away!


    7. The balls will flatten out after sitting for a while, but storing them in small plastic containers and then rolling them between your palms again will help the super bouncy balls regain their shape. Keep on bouncing!

Laura Novobilsky lives in Maryland and is the proud but exhausted mother of three. She loves to find ways to come together with her kids through crafts, projects, activities and outings. Her favorite activities are easy and inexpensive, yet fun and enjoyable for everyone. Laura shares the many things she has done with and for her children on her blog, Come Together Kids.

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  • Hintonelexius

    Happy Thanksgivingg ! Im Thankful Forr Everythingg & Godd ILY

  • Bry

    I only had a glue stick, I made the leaf stems longer then put glue on them and wrapped the tree stem. So that the stem was more of a tab and attached to its self. I hope that makes since.

  • Lucas

    Hi

  • Lucas

    Spedro like men

    • kacie

      yeah I got a bouncy ball project coming up lol I cant wait to do it it seems exciting

  • Sam

    Hey there does T mean tablespoon?

    • lulu24

      Yes, T means tablespoon.

  • Rebecca Robinson

    My pig/horse cut-out is seven days old. My wolf cut-out is eight months old. My pig/horse cut-out likes “Kipper the Dog”. He also likes “Barney and Friends”. My dog/mouse cut-out likes “Barney and Friends”. She also likes “Kipper the Dog”. My panda cut-out is eight months old. My panda cut-out likes “Barney and Friends”. She also likes “Kipper the Dog”. My Alaskan Malamute cut-out likes “Who’s the Boss?”. She also likes “Full House”. It’s 2014 and Barney and Friends is still cool. My birthday is in twenty days. I will turn twenty-seven in twenty days. I am a twenty-six-year-old woman. My older sister is a twenty-eight-year-old woman. My horse/moose cut-out likes Kindergarten reading. He also likes first grade reading.

  • Laura

    Tried this 4 times. Ours came out like gak. Didn’t bounce a bit. Any problem solving tips?

    • Lily

      I had the same problem!

  • Brat

    i dont care

  • abi

    i like the bounce ball a lot i did it for a science experiment

    love……

    • thomas

      I am 10. I thought it was fun

  • abi

    could u make up some more sceince experiments

  • abi

    wat

  • abi

    weird

  • Devin

    This seems cool im doing it for my science project right now

  • Katrina

    doesnt work!

    • Nirup

      I thought of doing this experiment for my school project, but see this comments

      I HATE THIS THING.

      IT IS THE WORST

  • ZombieUnicorn100

    Literally the worst bouncy ball ever. No bounce, just splat! Thanks a lot, huge disappointment.

  • Shayla Foss

    Terrible!

  • morgan

    mine came out perrfet

  • Lucy

    Tried twice; doesn’t work.

  • cristy

    I would like to try but I don’t have all the stuff

  • nina

    I would like to try but I don’t have all the stuff

  • nina

    I would like to try but I don’t have all the stuff

  • nina

    I would like to try but I don’t have all the stuff

  • Hunt

    If you use 1 tablespoon of corn starch it bounces a few inches. Not really super, but cool. 3 tablespoons of corn starch turns out to be silly puddy that does not bounce.

  • Bacon—Girl

    My friends brother is trying it didn’t work now we make a snow globe easy and simple

  • lulu24

    Well, at first I couldn’t get the the gue to stay together & almost threw it away but decided to put it back into the wet mixture and try it again & instead of rolling it smashed it gently hand to hand till it stayed together (a few minutes) & once it stayed together then it rolled just fine but it’s not bouncing very good at all & its getting a dried wrinkle effect? Is it supposed to do this? Did I do something wrong? I followed all instructions & ingredient measurements until I couldn’t get it to stay together? I really wanted to make them for my grandkids & how long do they last? is there something I can do to improve it & make it work better & make it last? Help please. Thanks!

  • mackie

    Hey lulu24 try making it again and putting them in separate plastic bags. It keeps them from drying out.

  • Luio

    How exactly does adding borax contribute to making a a bouncy ball? How do the glue and water contribute to making a bouncy ball? Is there any scientific explanation for this as well as why adding borax, glue, and water in certain amounts creates a ball that is bouncy to a certain extent?

  • PrimeSpace

    Why exactly are you adding cornstarch to glueP balls? That would just make it less effective. Stick to white glue, sodium borax, and water, I don’t think you even need warm water. A 10:10 ratio of glue to borax in water fails horribly (grams) but it’s just mix and match from then on.

  • monica rubi anaya

    My ball came out perfect

  • Gabriel R. Madriaga

    this is the right link/video i think.

    finish the video. then you’ll see.

  • brittany

    This did not work I cant figure out what I did wrong tired it 3 times

  • Michelle

    This did not work. The ‘bouncy ball’ turned out like Gak. This is such a shame.

  • DWAYNE GILLIAM

    dndndndndndnd

  • OpTic_KaRiM

    this is fake fight me irl.

  • OpTic_KaRiM

    noob kid goml u suck i am lvl 3 hack loomynarty

  • dirty man

    fight me

  • OpTic_KaRiM

    smd

  • OpTic_KaRiM

    siddown dammmit

  • Meg

    if you want it to bounce, only use borax powder, water, and glue. (and food coloring) it should bounce like Silly Putty

  • Marcia

    Do not use Cornstarch!!!! Dissolve the borax, then add glue.

  • Zack

    Mine bounces off the wall not the ground though.
    :-)

  • kietetyr

    it sucked also

  • kietetyr

    thanks alot pbs not so educational now

  • bijhuju

    pelease stop saying dose not work just give thums down

  • Mitch

    This worked great for me! My kids were so happy!

  • Mike

    Didn’t work at all. Maybe I got the measurements wrong? Any advice?

  • queen diva is qwesome

    thats so cool im doing it for a chemistry thing

  • Felicia

    Like a lot of you, I tried this recipe several times and it didn’t work. However, I took the advice from Marcia and left the corn starch out and they were a BIG success. My class loved them!!