science for toddlers Archives - Page 2 of 2

Today, Gracen and I tried something I’ve had on my {mental} ‘list’ for a very long time now… Magic milk painting! And I’m very happy to say, it was every bit as cool as I thought it would be. I’m not sure where I saw it first (it was a long time ago), but I found this post via Pinterest, we followed the instructions, and the activity was a huge hit.

Here’s what we used… Homogenized milk (I’ve read it works better than lower fat milks), food colouring, dish soap, toothpicks, and a plate (all things we already had on hand – bonus).

My happy little scientist / artist decided to enjoy the beautiful afternoon and took our things outside. With a thin layer of milk covering the bottom of the plate, Grae added drops of food colouring in various places around the dish.

Then, for the magic… With her toothpick dipped in dish soap, Grae began touching the food colouring drops. The soap causes the colouring to radiate away from the toothpick, creating beautiful circles and swirls of colour around the plate.

The more you dip, the more the colours move and blend. I must say, it’s absolutely mesmerizing to watch.

The coolest part is that the colours continue to dance and mix long after you touch them with the toothpick, so you don’t have to constantly be adding more soap to enjoy the beautiful effects.

Just take a look…

Eventually, the milk becomes quite muddled and the colours no longer ‘dance’ as well. At that point, it’s time to fetch a fresh dish of milk and start again.

We tried 3 times, twice with whole milk and once with half & half cream (thinking that the higher fat content might make the results even better), and I must say, the whole milk worked best. The cream did work well and made the colours move a little more slowly (which is a good thing if you want the activity to last longer), but at the same time, the slower effects did seem to take away (just a tiny bit) from the magic of it all.

Both Gracen and I enjoyed this activity so much that we’ll definitely be doing it again soon. And although dairy products past their due date freak me right out (I know, I know…), it would be great to pull out when you have milk that’s gone a day or two past its best before date.

♥

I’ve had tons of fun little activities and cooking projects I’ve wanted to do with Miss G over the last couple of weeks, but all the gorgeous sunshiny weather we’ve been having has allowed for little more than bike rides, outdoor play, visits to the beach, and afternoons at the pool. Darn weather!

Though we’ve been soaking up every moment of our summer, today’s dreariness was a welcomed change. Our house was cool, and we stayed in all morning playing and having fun {without melting}.

The first little activity we tried was what I call moon painting. It’s super simple and involves three basic things everyone with munchkins probably has at home – a tray of baking soda, food colouring dyed vinegar, and a few old medicine droppers / syringes.

See why I call it moon painting? The vinegar and soda mixture bubbles up and leaves little crater-covered splotches when it settles back down again.

Gracen really, really enjoyed this activity. I demonstrated how to using the dropper, and she picked it up very quickly (although it did become harder near the end when there wasn’t as much of the vinegar mixture left). She’d drop a little vinegar onto her tray, then point in excitement as it fizzed up in mound of bubbles. Afterwards, she’d announce the colour of her newest splot.

Pinch…

Drop…

And watch the bubbles!

Moon craters in the making.

We did try using the syringes too, but we quickly learned that they led to great big swamps rather than moon craters, which caused less of a fizz.

So back to the dropper we went.

The end result was a tray covered in colourful craters and a little lady who would have done continued moon painting for the rest of the morning given the chance.

Here’s a little video of Grae hard at play:

And the best part about this activity? Because both vinegar and baking soda are very effective natural cleaners, clean up is a breeze! Who would have thought your little one’s art project would equal a newly-shined kitchen sink?

♥

Tag Archives: science for toddlers

Magic Milk Paint

Moon Painting