Colour Surprise Experiment
Colour Surprise Experiment
This week at Wide Bay Kids Playgroup our theme was ‘All about Colours’. We had lots of brightly coloured activities including playdough, balloon painting, a ball pit and a rainbow soapy sensory bin. The kids really enjoyed the colourful activities but there was one standout – our colour surprise experiment!
This surprise experiment really had the wow factor! Everyone was amazed to watch what happened when a clear liquid was poured into a jar of white powder. How did that colour suddenly appear? It was such a great magic trick even the parents were baffled……..and the best part is it’s so simple, you can easily recreate this fun experiment at home with only 3 pantry ingredients.
I promised I’d share the secret, so here you go Wide Bay Kids families –
What you need:
- white vinegar
- bicarbonate of soda
- liquid food colouring
- jars
- dropper
- spoon
- flat tray
What to do:
Prepare your jars secretly in advance by:
- Placing a scoop of bicarb soda into the bottom of your jar making sure the base is completely covered
- Then carefully drop about 4 drops of liquid food colouring on top of the bicarb soda
- Scoop more bicarb on top of the existing bicarb, making sure to completely cover all the food colouring. All you should see is white powder.
- Place your prepared jars on a flat tray (the tray will catch the mixture that bubbles out)
Now your jars are ready for the surprise:
- Pour about 100mls of vinegar into your prepared jar
- Ask your child to stir up the contents of the jar
- The mixture will bubble up and turn a brilliant colour
- You can add more vinegar and it will bubble some more
What a fun way to learn how to identify colours! You could play a game of who can guess what colour might appear next. Or as one of our parents suggested, this would be a great Halloween party trick, just like a witches brew!
Let me know how you go with this experiment, I really hope you enjoy it as much as we did. Perhaps you have another fun experiment we could all try? Please share it with us in the comments.
