It was a real joy to see the family on Saturday - and the weather was glorious, we had lunch in the garden. Rosie collected her gift from the Museum, which had been sitting here waiting for her, and Jess went into the igloo with a puppet [the paramedic is her favourite]
I can really recommend this one if you have preschool and primary children to entertain.
You need
- APRONS!
- A cupful of red cabbage
- Knife and chopping board
- Water
- Lemon juice
- 2 jugs or mixing bowls
- A sieve
- A teaspoon for each child
- Some small containers [we had plastic trifle dishes, and tiny jampots]
Use your discretion - some tasks must be done by the adult. Start by reminding the children it is called red cabbage although it is purple. Can they guess what colour it will turn the cooking water?
- Chop the cabbage finely
- Tip it all into one jug
- Pour water [from second jug] till cabbage is just covered
- Discard remain water
- Microwave jug of cabbage, on "high" for 2 minutes.
- Pour cabbage into sieve, drain liquid into second jug.
- The cabbage can be put into compost/food waste /eaten!
- ALLOW LIQUID TO COOL- what colour is it? Deep blue
- While it cools put your pots on a tray. Put a few drops of lemon juice in the little jars, and 50ml cold water in one of larger jars.
- Pour the blue liquid in larger jars, and show that when it goes in with the water, it becomes a light blue.
- Now carefully take the tray to the rest of the family.
- Explain you are adding the clear liquid to the blue - can they predict what will happen?
- Pour a little lemon juice into each large pot, stir gently
- Watch what happens
[our helpful adults predicted the water would go spotty, start fizzing or turn pink]
It was great fun
What a lovely activity for children and a real learning experience.. we had a beautiful sunshiny Saturday too.
ReplyDeleteI still cannot get over the vivid colours we produced. 💜 🩷 💙
ReplyDeleteWhat marvellous fun. Our boys loved the bicarb/vinegar volcano explosion thing when they were about 7 or 8. Isn't science fun? Happy Bank Holiday although it is raining 🐱 and 🐕 here in East Sussex. Regards Sue H
ReplyDeleteOh I love volcano one too! Haven't tried that with Jess yet - I did it with Rosie during the, Lockdown Summer.
DeleteHow lovely, a great activity for the little ones x
ReplyDeleteAlison in Wales x
👍
DeleteWhat fantastic science experiments you did with the girls. More importantly you made science fun. Catriona
ReplyDeleteIf it is fun then they are more likely to remember
DeleteI'm sure I remember Margaret Thatcher demonstrating that experiment on children's TV many many years ago?
ReplyDeleteI'd forgotten that. https://www.margaretthatcher.org/document/106573. If only she had stayed a chemist and not gone into politics...
DeleteI wish I had known about this fun experiment when DGD was little. She will be an adult in just over a month's time, sigh.
ReplyDeleteIt's still fun even for grown ups
DeleteWhat a fun experiment for the little girls to do! You are the best grandma!
ReplyDeleteThanks Bless
DeleteWhat a wonderful activity! The next stage could have been getting some paper and paint brushes and seeing if you painted separate lines or patches with the colours, how they affected the paper. Would they leave a colour once dry? Would there be any difference? I painted with deep purple cabbage water for the January challenge once.
ReplyDeleteDid they make different colours because you added different quantities of water and lemon juice in each one. Would also be fun of trying to organise them into a line of lightest to darkest.
Yes, the dilution with water and increased acid (lemon juice) gave different shades. I just found a suggestion about trying different acids like vinegar or cream of tartar . Maybe when the girls are here in the summer...
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