Science Experiment: Celery & Food Coloring

We did a little science experiment with celery and food coloring.  It's actually one of the first we've done at home.  I'm excited to start incorporating this into our weekly routine.  Having curious children in the home makes science experiments so fun.

SUPPLIES:

• Celery


• Clear glasses or vases


• Water


• Food coloring (if you're only doing one color, blue works best)

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Fill the glass with a couple inches of water.


2. Add a few drops of food coloring. (We added about 10)


3. Cut the celery about an inch from the end, separate and place in the glass.  Be sure to leave the leaves on as they show the food coloring the best.


4. Let it sit overnight to see what happens!

Caden woke up in the morning and quickly realized that the blue celery was turning blue.  I asked him, "why do you think it's turning blue?"  He said, "it's in blue water." I then talked to him about what happens when we water plants, and how the water gets to the end of the leaves.  If you look really close, you can see the food coloring reaching the end of the celery stalk.

It was fun to see Caden draw conclusions and talk about how plants absorb water.  Do you do science experiments in your home?

Simple Play: DIY Magnet Jar

We had a couple pipe cleaner scraps left over from our DIY snowflake activity so I decided to make a quick magnet jar.

SUPPLIES:

• Glass jar (this is a recycled Ragu jar)


• Strong magnet


• magnetic items (we used pipe cleaners)


• non-magnetic item (we used colored rice)

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Place everything in the jar except for the magnet.


2. Shake it up.


3. Slide the magnet on the outside of the jar to see if you can get anything to move.  If not, put the magnet inside the jar to see what you can fetch!

"Look, mom!  A spider!"

Caden loved this so much and it was so, so simple.  I love it when we can find fun and creative things to play with around the house.