We had a really cool project that just requires white flowers and food coloring.
On one of our many walks, Amelia and I collected flowers from a tree at the playground. Ours had the tiniest of pink pigment, so they weren’t perfect, but give me a break. We were in the middle of a full quarantine!
Then, we added food coloring and watched the flowers slowly change colors.
This was a GREAT project we had seen a friend do and decided to mimic. First we learned a bit about plants. Scholastic helped us out with that again. We reread From Seed to Plant and learned all about how plants grow and how they drink water.
Then I asked her, if a flower drinks blue water, will it turn blue?
She scrunched her nose in thought, and eventually decided that no, it would not.
I asked if we would turn blue if we drank blue water. She answered with a confident “no!” and I wondered why.
“Because mommy drinks that brown drink [coffee] every morning and hasn’t started changing color…”
Touché, Amelia.
So we added different colors, all of her choice, to water and put a flower or two in each one.
After a little while, they did start to change color. She was really surprised, and I was just glad the project worked.
If you want to do the project, it’s pretty much as easy as putting white flowers into water with food coloring, and then exercising patience. But they MUST be white. Ours had the tiniest bit of pink, which made it less obvious.
Here is a video that will help:
This is a really fun activity that everyone can enjoy. For older kids, you can discuss why and how it happens. For younger ones, it’s about how plants grow and the fun of seeing them change color.
And if you want to explain how it happens, Go Science Girls has a great explanation.
Either way, it’s a great project that is simple and takes items you probably have around the house (or neighborhood) anyway.
Pod of One 