SET: The Magic of a Black Marker

Science Experiment Thursday (SET) included the color of the week

Monkey J loves magic, so he was excited when I told him that a black marker had some magical properties.  We started off using a coffee filter, but it didn't work very well, so we moved on to a paper towel.  For this experiment, you will need:

-Paper Towel
-Bowl of water
-Black Marker (not permanent)

Have your little scientist color on one end of the paper towel with the black marker:

Place the paper towel in the  bowl with the coloring on the top:

You can watch the water "creep up" the towel:

And as it does, the black breaks up into different colors:
 

Monkey J loved to see the different colors emerge:

 Which naturally meant we had to do the same thing with different colored markers:

So how does it work?  Well, surprise!  We are using chromatography again, just like last week, to separate the pigments of the marker.  By placing the ink in water, we are creating a medium for which the pigments can travel.  The rate at which each pigment travels on water varies, so that's why we see the colors that were used to make black appear.  To explain it to Monkey J for now, I simply told him that we mix together different colors to make black ;)

Black Week Activities

We've been having so much fun exploring the color black.  We painted black spiders from egg cartons:

This was before we added the two additional legs (black pipe cleaners) to make it a spider ;)

We did some pipe cleaner colander play:

As well as silhouette painting:

Monkey J really enjoyed drawing his lovey:

We then cut out our hand-prints and footprint from some black glitter paper I had:

Added some googly eyes:

And made some bats!

Black Week

We started off our Black Week with our sensory bin:

I used black beans as the base and found as many black objects as I could...it was tough as not many kid toys are black!

Monkey A loves any bin that involves beans...

I then had Monkey J fill in the letter "B" for black with black construction paper pieces:

He was pretty excited by the results:

I put some black paint, some water, and some cornmeal in a bowl and we painted with it
Cornmeal paint:
-Cornmeal
-Tempura paint
-A touch of water

Seems like we will have an awesome black week!

Harvest Moon

We talked a lot about the harvest moon; the harvest moon actually typically occurs in late September and is called the harvest moon because the farmers are able to work late into the night due to the light from the moon.  But since we are dong Harvest week now, we made our own harvest moons. 

What you will need:
-Black Bingo markers or black water color
-Some water
-Coffee filters

You want to dip the Bingo marker into the water first before blotting the filter.  The filter allows for the most beautiful markings: 

Continue until you fill up your moon:

Let dry:

And you have your harvest moon! 

SET: Why Leaves Change Color

This experiment was so tempting to do considering the time of the year.  However, ours took a long time to actually see any results, so try to follow the experiment as closely as possible.  You could also start it in the morning and then, by evening, the results should be visible.

You will need:
-Leaves of different colors
-Clear glasses or jars
-Rubbing Alcohol
-Coffee Filters
-Tape
-Aluminum Foil or plastic baggie
-A large Tupperware or Pyrex that will hold the glasses

We had a fun time collecting our different color leaves:

Then we sorted the leaves by color and the monkeys got started on tearing up our leaves and crushing them up into our glasses:

Once the leaves are crushed up finely, pour rubbing alcohol into the glasses until it completely covers the leaves.  *Remember to have an adult do this with the younger ones and be sure to do this in a well-ventilated area*.

Continue to mash up the leaves until the rubbing alcohol starts changing colors.  The rubbing alcohol turning a different color will ensure the experiment's success, so really focus on mashing up those leaves!  This was the step we didn't quite do as well and it's possible that's why our results took longer to see.

When finished, cover the glasses with aluminum foil.  You will then place the glasses in the Pyrex or Tupperware container and fill up the container with about an inch of hot water (again, have an adult do this if working with younger children).

The next step is to wait for 30 minutes while periodically agitating the leaves and refilling the water to make sure the water stays warm.  We made ourselves busy with spraying colored water on some of our coffee filters:

After about 40 minutes, we removed the aluminum foil and tore our coffee filters into strips.  We placed the filters into the glasses and then taped the filter to the edge of the glass so it would stay in place:

And we waited again.  This time for a good hour, but we didn't see any results :(

The next morning, however, we saw the colors creeping up the coffee filters:

The longer we left it, the more colors we saw emerge:

After 48 hours, the coffee filters had amazing colorful patterns on them!

So, how does it work?

It's rather complicated, but here's a simpler version.  In the spring and summer, the leaves are green because of the chlorophyll.  The other colors you see on the filter are always there inside the leaf, but chlorophyll is so dominant it hides the other colors.  In the fall, however, the chlorophyll breaks down, which allows the other colors to be seen.  By using the heat and the rubbing alcohol, you are essentially using the technique of chromatography to separate the pigments.  Science can be so colorful!

What's been your favorite science experiment so far?

Harvest Week

We had a fun week this week during our "Harvest Week".  We started off with our sensory bin:

I used cornmeal as the base, some fake gourds and pumpkins from The Dollar Tree, and our tractors:

We had a harvest picking activity one afternoon:

Monkey J was to harvest the crops from the yard and then place them in the correct colored container:

We also played a lot with our tractors and pretended to harvest crops with them:

We used cheerios and our pumpkin spice playdough for our crops:

Monkey A really enjoyed putting the mini pumpkins in the pick-up trucks:

We've also been reading books about farmers harvesting their crops and we talk about which crops can be harvested.  We've nicknamed each other Farmer J and Farmer A and we've been practicing writing the letters that make up the word "harvest".