Homemade Kinetic Sand Recipe Activity

Fine play sand (4 cups)

Cornstarch (2 tablespoons)

Dish soap (1 tablespoon)

A large bin

A butter knife, cookie cutters, and molds

Food coloring (optional)

Combine sand and cornstarch in a bin. Mix well.

Add dish soap gradually and mix with your hands.

Test: squeeze a handful. It should pack together, then slowly crumble.

Adjust: more soap if too dry, more sand if too wet.

Start sculpting — mold towers, press shapes, slice satisfying cuts with a butter knife.

Experiment: more cornstarch changes the texture. Food coloring makes it vibrant.

Compare your homemade version to store-bought kinetic sand. How close can you get?

The satisfying part of kinetic sand is the slow, crumbly collapse. Fine-tune the recipe until you nail that.

Slicing kinetic sand with a flat knife is oddly satisfying — ASMR-level. Try it.

The cornstarch acts as a binder while the dish soap adds flow. Together they mimic the silicone oil in commercial kinetic sand.

This recipe costs a fraction of store-bought. You can make pounds of it.

Store in a sealed container. Refresh with a few drops of water if it dries out between uses.