14 replies to this topic

[pinkster]

Apart from using food colouring, does any one know of other ways of colouring water.

Am doing an activity making potions from Snow White and the 7 dwarfs, and want to use coloured water for the children to mix up and combine. Using different containers, bottles etc.

I'm a bit worried about food colouring dying their hands!!

Any more ideas would be great, and other things to in the water.
Thank you.

[luckyquack]

crepe paper is supposed to colour the water. havn't tried it myself though you have to remove the paper with gloves yourself.

[H]

In the past we have used a small amount of powder paint - you are then able to get different shades by varying the amount of paint added

[mundia]

I have used the crepe paper and it certainly works- the children love it.

[Jay]

I have seen coloured cellophane used. Over the period of the session it loses it's colour making the water change colour and the celophane turn clear.
Note it can sometimes stain the water tray but it does come out with a bit of a scrub :D

[Sue]

Hi Pinkster

You could use colour change bubble bath that then dyes the colour of the water. At least with this there is no danger of dying the childrens hands.

Have fun

Sue

[Nicola Gray]

What about using olive oil with blue water (food colouring) in a plastic drinks bottle. Children love trying to mix them together by shaking them and guess what it turns - yep green and then separates again to blue and yellow. I do this with red/olive oil as well. I have also just bought the new baby oil gel which seems to make bigger globules - even more fun. YOu can also add glitter, beads and corks to this to make a variation on what floats etc and why
Nikki
ps don't forget to seal the lids of the bottles - it looks quite tasty!!

[mundia]

Brilliant idea :D

[cinderella]

Are crepe paper stained hands, is this common

[pinkster]

I got crepe paper from a pound shop, being so cheap it was probably from a country were they don't worry about things like that!!

It did work quite well though so I was happy.

It seems like ages ago I did that, am know trying to finish my dissertation and find a job!!

[diane]

On the subject of magic potions - changing the colour of water:

Buy a red cabbage and cook it in plenty of water. Chuck away the cabbage! Keep the lovely blue cooking water. You can dilute the cooking water slightly to make it go further. Let the children make the blue water turn pink and then back to blue (and so on) using vinegar (or lemon juice, but vinegar is cheaper) and sodium bicarbonate (bicarbonate of soda). The blue cabbage water is an indicator for acids/alkalis. A nice, fun, cheap and safe, simple science activity. Also, the children soon discover that mixing the vinegar and sodium bicarbonate causes a lovely fizzing reaction.

Diane.

[mundia]

Thanks for reminding me of that Diane. We used to do that in Chemistry!!! I will definately try that one. :D

[Sue R]

Hi there!

What!!!!! Throw away the lovely cabbage!!!!!!!!!(OK, matter of taste! )

Good idea, I'd forgotten all the indicator malarkey too!

Glitter on the water makes a lovely mirror, too, but you need quite a lot!
Have you tried making 'snowstorms'? Really effective :) ! Not really on topic, but hey

Sue :D