Easy Science Experiement: Milk + Dyes + Soap

This is a science experiment I did with my kids AGES ago...when my kids were so much smaller.   I loved how ARTSY this science experiment was.

It's fun and fairly simple. You will need:

• A shallow pan or bowl
• Milk
• Food coloring
• Dish soap

Fill the pan with milk. Drop several drops of different colored food coloring in different places in the milk. Then, squirt a small drop of dish soap in the middle of the dish soap. The colors will start to swirl as the dish soap reacts to the protein in the milk.  Like this...

Isn't that cool!  Of course, if you want to keep this "artwork" to hang on your wall then you'll have to take some pictures like we did.  I love how this also caught the reflection of the lights above our table.  Pretty cool!

LESSON IN COLORS
Use red, yellow, and blue food coloring to help teach younger children what colors are created when those colors mix.

EXPLORING DIFFERENT TYPE OF MILK
The blogger from Tots and Me commented that she tried this experiment with milk with different fat contents (1%, 2%, Whole, etc.) and that it does change the reaction.

THE SCIENCE BEHIND IT
I found this description of what causes the colors to swirl on About.com:

"The detergent lowers the surface tension of the liquid so that the food coloring is free to flow throughout the milk. The detergent reacts with the protein in the milk, altering the shape of those molecules and setting them in motion."

So, what is "surface tension?"   You can learn more about it and do an easy experiment to find out here.

You can read an even more detailed description at the bottom of About.com's Magic Colored Milk Science Project Page.


FOLLOW UP

You can follow up/review this info while cleaning. When cleaning a greasy pan have children observe what happens to the grease when you fill a pan with water and then add a drop of dish soap (the grease will go to the edge of the pan). Talk about how that's the same thing that happened when we did the milk experiment.   Talk about how soap works to help get rid of grease.  

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Shared on Little's Learning Link-up, Throwback Thursday

A Heart-full Kindergarten Valentines Day

We had a really fun Valentines last year...one of my favorite lessons ever. 

I started planning for Valentines A LONG TIME in advance.  You see, my homeschooler has two older brothers who go to public school, and I knew he might feel a little jealous when they came home with a bag full of Valentine's cards and candy.   So, in January I sent out requests to some other homeschoolers I knew and some of his friends from church to send him Valentines, and we sent some Valentines to them too.  (BONUS:  It was really good way to get my son to practice his handwriting!). 

Then, when Valentines day finally came, here's what we did....

That morning before they woke up, I laid out a special treat for all three boys at the kitchen table...a candy bar wrapped with a cool wrapper I found over at Chica Club Circle.  (They're big Minecraft fans.  They loved it!)
 

After the big kids were off to school it was time for homeschool.  But first, I went out to check our mailbox.  My friends told me they'd sent the valentines, but NONE of them had come yet.  But sure enough, there was a handwritten letter covered in Valentines stickers right on the top of the pile.  I shut the box and ran to get my son so he could "check the mail."  He was totally excited to see a letter with his name on it and find the Valentine with the sucker from his friend  inside (and even more excited when the other Valentines came a little later). 

Candy Heart Science

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Valentines-Day-Science-Candy-Heart-Experiment-FREE-1634839

ACTIVITY 1:  Corinthians 13

While he ate his sucker I read him the passage on love from Corinthians 13. Then we drew a picture of something we could do to show someone we loved them, using a page from a freebie by A Cupcake for the Teacher.    I tried to get him to write a description too, but he was resistant.   I had planned this to be a fun day, so I let it slide.

By the way, that's a picture of someone giving someone else a flower.  Why the broken heart?  He says that means love.   Ok...  We'll sort that out later.

ACTIVITY 2:  Candy Heart Mustache Measurement

Then I brought out the candy hearts!  After reading a few, and eating a few, we measured some mustaches and lips with them (using another cute TPT freebie, by Mrs. Wheeler ). 

ACTIVITY 3:  Candy Heart Sorting and Graphing

That wasn't the only thing we did with candy hearts...next we practiced sorting and graphing with them too! (Free printable by Dear Wellington)

ACTIVITY 4-5:  Candy Heart Science

PART ONE:  Candy Hearts ON FIRE!

Then it was time for some Valentines science. When I told my son we were going to do an experiment with the candy hearts, he got all excited and, looking over at a candle I had burning, said "I think if you burn a candy heart it will melt!"  Well, that was NOT the activity I had planned, but THAT was worth changing plans for!   (I mean, what DO candy hearts do when they burn?  Would they even burn at all?  Now I wanted to know too!)   So I got some tweezers and held a heart over the candle, and oh, cool things happened!  Not only did the heart catch on fire, but it fizzed as it burned, and then melted....or at least that's what I THOUGHT until I did some more research.  Sugar, I learned in a very interesting article, technically  caramelizes, but doesn't really melt.   A scientist friend of mine told me the fizzing is due to impurities (air pockets and such) in the candy.

(WARNING: Candy hearts are VERY flammable...though it's easy to blow them out and it is a slow burning flame.  And we had water to dunk them in in case that hadn't worked.).

 PART 2:  Sink or Float?

After we had our fun burning hearts, we did the experiment I had planned: a sink or float activity.   Candy hearts do some fun things in soda...first they sink, but then as bubbles form around them they will pop to the surface (and then sometimes loose their bubbles and sink again)!.

My son loved it, and played with the hearts in the liquids for at least a half hour afterwards.

(I just have to pause here and say, this is why I love homeschooling:  the ability to, impromptu, do a science experiment INVOLVING FIRE, or being able to take 30 unplanned minutes to just play.). 
 

 We wrote down our findings on this 

cute free printable by I found at  Curriculum Castle . 

 

ACTIVITY 6:  Heart Art

Lastly, we did an art project with toilet-paper rolls and paint.  Very fun.

We just folded a toilet paper tube like a heart,

dipped it in paint...

...and stamped it!

One of the types of paint formed bubbles, which covered the whole end of the heart sometimes (and made the solid silver hearts above)...that was kind of a cool surprise.  Really, just one of many surprises that day.

So what are you planning for Valentines?

This page is linked up on...
Sharing Time 
Throwback Thursday
Littles Learning Link-up 
The Bookshelf - Valentines
Encouraging Hearts and Home 
Homeschool Highlights 

and Various Homeschool Linky Parties