Last week, when we made rainbow cookies, we noticed the color came off when mixing so this week we tried an experiment for some science and color fun.
While the cookies tasted wonderful, we didn’t have the bright colors to make rainbows. We wanted to see what would happen to the colors if they weren’t all mixed up. We got a whole bunch of small containers that seem to collect in the drawer and put some water in each one. Little Sister counted out 3 candies –these were M and M’s– of each color and we watched. Very soon the color dissolved into the water. After stirring them up with her favorite little spoon, nearly all the color was gone off each candy.
Although there was an orange and a green, there was no purple. I asked Little Sister if she would like me to abracadabra a purple. While she said abracadabra, I poured a little bit of the red and blue water together. It really did make a lovely purple. I asked her if she would like to do some color magic too. Fortunately, her answer was “Of couse,” (She doesn’t have the r sound yet.) So, she mixed yellow and red to make an orange, and blue and yellow to make a green.
No kid could resist trying all of the colors and it made a muddy brown. Not as grey as I would have predicted, possibly because of the chocolate too? A few candies and some water made for some amazing science and color fun. It’s another idea to include in simple science activities. Even if kids are learning colors, it’s fascinating to see the color starting to swirl in the water from the candies. Plus, mixing up the colors really was magical.
A note for next time is to have more little containers and possibly a big eye dropper. I wonder if this might be fun to do again after Halloween? What do you and your child think?