Kinetic sand is a fun sensory product that kids of all ages enjoy. You can cut it, mold it and shape it just like play dough except it's sand. In this free kids craft tutorial we'll walk you through the exact steps to make your own DIY kinetic sand. And we're not talking any kinetic sand recipe, this is the best kinetic sand recipe. You can trust us, because we tried about four other kinetic sand recipes before giving this one the thumbs up.

The secret ingredient in this kinetic sand recipe is "slime".  About 3-4 pinches to be precise. Now, if you don't know how to make slime you can visit our post on crunchy slime. Just skip the acrylic paint and beads. If you'd rather not make slime, there's no issue with using a pre-made slime from a store. For all you know, the kids may have a container laying around the house. It also doesn't matter if it's colored.

This is a fun science-based craft. The interaction of baby oil and water break down the molecules in the slime, while the sand particles adhere to the slime and create that super cool elasticity you get with kinetic sand. From trying other kinetic  sand recipes, we discovered that without the slime and baby oil, we really just got wet sand that dried out by the next day and reverted back to sand.

This was the best kinetic sand recipe because we were able to mold, stretch, shape and cut the sand just like the store-bought versions. Furthermore, if you put your kinetic sand in a  baggie or plastic container, it will keep for two weeks.

And lastly, DON'T USE A LOT OF WATER. Although the recipe calls for a 1/4 cup of water, use it little by little. You'll probably have a lot of water left over. I know we did. Too much water makes wet sand, requiring extra slime, baby oil and dry sand. We learned that the hard way 😉 Other than that, give it a try and let us know what you think.

BEST HOMEMADE KINETIC SAND RECIPE:
(as seen on the Kelly Clarkson Show)

• 1 tablespoon of cornstarch
• 1/4 teaspoon of dish soap
• 1 cup of white sand (see below for the type of sand we used)
• 1/4 cup of water
• Baby oil
• Acrylic paint in whatever colors you'd like
• 3 or 4 pinches of slime (1 pinch measured 1/4 teaspoon)

STEPS TO MAKE OUR KINETIC SAND:

1:  Add 1/4 teaspoon of dish soap to the water, stir and set aside.

2:  Put 1 cup of sand in a bowl and mix in 1 tablespoon of cornstarch.

3:  In a separate bowl, add a pinch of slime (1/4 - 1/2 teaspoon) to the bottom of the bowl and scoop in some sand. Approximately 3 tablespoons to start with.

4:  Begin folding in the sand in your bowl into the slime by stretching the slime, then dipping it back into the sand, stretching it again and dipping it back into the sand.

Your basically kneading the sand into the slime at this point.

5:  Add just a little bit of your wet mixture then continue to knead the sand into the slime.

6:  Add a little more sand and a few squirts of baby oil.

The baby oil and water will break down the molecules of the slime making the mixture crumbly and stringy.

7:  When your mixture looks similar to one of the consistencies below, it's time to add some color.

TIME TO COLOR TO YOUR KINETIC SAND!

8:  Add a few squirts of acrylic paint to your mixture and knead it into the sand.

We're opting to color our kinetic sand with paint over food coloring because the food coloring dyed our hands for a few hours. Whereas the acrylic paint was almost non-existent when we finished, then washed off very easily.

9:  At this point we added one more pinch of slime to complete our kinetic sand elasticity. Just knead it through the mixture until you can pull and stretch your kinetic sand. When you're kinetic sand is done, it will almost feel like it's melting away. You'll be able to mold, cut and sculpt your sand.

THIS IS THE FINAL RESULT!

Give it a try and let us know how your kinetic sand turns out. If you'd prefer to watch how we made ours, we made video tutorial for YouTube on HOW TO MAKE HOMEMADE KINETIC SAND & were on The Kelly Clarkson Show!