Tag Archives: colour mixing

Jul5

Rainbow Milk

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When I was in school, we did an experiment with milk and food colouring that was really cool. I couldn’t remember exactly what went into the milk, so I had a look about the internet, and found the experiment I was thinking of over at DLTK’s Crafts for Kids, and they even had a video showing how it’s done!

Food colouring and milk in the tin.

Food colouring and milk in the tin.

This experiment is really easy, yet so amazing! We placed a shallow layer of milk into a cake tin. We only had light milk, so that’s what we used, and it worked just fine. A used a pipette to place some red, yellow and blue food colouring at roughly evenly spaced intervals around the edge of the tin. Once the food colouring was in, I placed a squirt of dish washing liquid into the centre of the tin, and we watched eagerly to see what would happen.

A few moments after the dish washing liquid was added.

A few moments after the dish washing liquid was added.

The dish washing liquid doesn’t mix with the milk, so it spreads out across the surface of the milk. The food colouring gets caught in the movement of the dishwashing liquid, and causes the colours to move and mix. We got a rainbow! The reaction can continue for a while, making new colours and awesome patterns. There’s no need to mix or move it for the colour mixing to continue. After about ten minutes, A wobbled the tin a little to see what would happen. It made the colours mix even more.

After a few minutes.

After a few minutes.

After about 10 minutes.

After about 10 minutes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A thought this experiment was so incredible, she asked to repeat it once L and Big L were home. L put a lot of dish washing liquid into the milk, and the reaction happened much more quickly than our earlier attempt. As the colours mixed, Baby T was completely mesmerised by the movement of the colours. This time, after the colour mixing had begun, we let the kids have a toothpick to drag through the colours to make even more interesting patterns. They enjoyed doing this, and kept doing it until the colours had mixed so much it was a murky brown colour. Science is pretty cool 🙂

A few minutes into the second experiment. The spot in the middle is the dish washing liquid.

A few minutes into the second experiment. The spot in the middle is the dish washing liquid.

Using a toothpick to make new patterns.

Using a toothpick to make new patterns.

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Jul3

Colour Mixing

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Food colouring.

Food colouring.

A and I got talking about colours today, and how some colours can be mixed with others to make new colours. We spoke about the three primary colours, red, blue and yellow. I asked A what she thought would happen if we mixed two of the primary colours together. She wasn’t sure, so we went out to the kitchen and did a little experiment.

We used food colouring in water. I filled three small cups with water, and then let A use some plastic pipettes to squeeze some food colouring into the water. She placed red food colouring into one cup, blue into one and yellow into one. She mixed the colour into the water with a spoon.

Adding blue to yellow to make green.

Adding blue to yellow to make green.

Then to the cup containing yellow water, she added some blue colouring. She mixed it up and was delighted to see that she had made green water.

Before squirting some yellow dye into the red cup, A accurately predicted that it would make orange. She was very pleased to see that it was indeed orange once she’d mixed it in.

Adding red food colouring to the blue water.

Adding red food colouring to the blue water.

Finally, to the blue cup A added some red food colouring. She had no idea what colour these two would produce, though she hazarded a guess of pink. As these colours are so dark, it was a little hard to see what had happened, until A lifted some of the water out of the cup with the spoon. She broke out with a huge grin when she saw the water had turned purple. It was very exciting for her.

This was a very quick and easy way of showing A how the primary colours mix to make the secondary colours. And it was fun 🙂

A's cups of purple, green and orange water.

A’s cups of purple, green and orange water.

 

Oct8

Squishy Press Painting

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IMG_2907These sort of paintings probably have a real name, but I’ve always thought of them as squishy or butterfly paintings due to the way the paint is squished between the paper, and that the final outcome often looks butterfly-ish.

Blobbing the paint onto the paper.

Blobbing the paint onto the paper.

Squishing the folded paper together to spread and mix the paint.

Squishing the folded paper together to spread and mix the paint.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We like doing these simple paintings. The kids like the way the paint squishes and mixes to make pretty patterns. I pre-folded the paper to make it easier for the kids to see where to put the paint. They blobbed paint onto the paper using paint brushes and then re-folded the paper and pressed down on it to spread the paint. It works best if the paint is near the fold of the paper in blobs of different colours, and don’t let it dry before folding. Pressing the paper away from the fold towards the edge of the paper will spread the paint further, and change the shape of the painting. Open the paper, and there is a pretty painting inside!

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