Icky Sticky Stuff

Grades 2–3

Adhesives are used to stick things together. Many adhesives occur in nature and have important uses for plants and animals.

What You Need

• Flour
• Measuring cup
• Egg white < !!! >
• Food coloring
• 4 small bowls
• 4 plastic spoons
• Aluminum foil
• Cotton balls
• Toothpicks
• Small pieces of cloth
• Glitter
• Safety scissors
• Colored yarn or ribbon
• Colored paper

What to Do

• Help your child to search your home to track down everything that she can that is sticky. See how many of the following she can find:

  • Tape
  • Peanut butter
  • Postage stamps
  • Envelopes
  • Honey
  • A decal on a t-shirt
  • Spackle
  • An adhesive bandage

• Ask your child to make a list of things in nature—animals, plants and so forth—that have adhesive properties or are sticky. For example:

  • Spiders that use sticky threads to create webs to catch their food
  • Tree sap
  • Barnacles that stick to boats, ships and rocks

• Next, ask her to think of adhesives that are used in hospitals? in offices? in auto repair shops?

• Help your child to make a poster or collage using adhesives by doing the following:

  • Make three bowls of flour-and-water paste. In each bowl, add 1/4 cup water to 1/2 cup flour and mix until smooth. Add a different-colored food coloring to each of the three bowls and mix. Use the pastes to make colored shapes on a poster board or heavy paper.
  • Crack open an egg and separate the white into a bowl. Use the white as a clear glue to attach aluminum foil, cotton balls, toothpicks, cloth, glitter, ribbon, yarn and colored paper—whatever works to create a collage.

By Barbara J. Feldman

Barbara J. Feldman is a syndicated columnist and the publisher of Surf Net Parents, Surfnetkids.com and 51+ other family-friendly sites. She has been creating websites since 1996, and loves teaching others how to solve WordPress problems.