Colour my day

Food colouring made a huge appearance at my house today.

It started when I added some Cherry Red to the lava mix to make it look more realistic.

Then the obvious next step was to show the kids how water “walks” from 1 cup to another – this time using blue colouring. By lunchtime the only acceptable meal was going to be Rainbow Pasta which went down very well (as toys and sustenance).

I was exhausted after lunchtime and managed to convince both kids to have a nap before swimming. I’m not quite sure how attentive my hubby is to the pool as he may notice a slight change in colour of the pool water when he returns from his business trip – it was easier to scrub the kids down by letting them splash in the pool than by bathing or chasing after them with a hosepipe.

Here’s how we did all the food colouring activities today. Enjoy!

VOLCANOS

We started off by painting cardboard to look like mountains – well, our versions of mountains anyway.

I cut the top off an old water bottle and added 1 tbsp of bicarbonate of soda – then I added a bit more “just in case”

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In a seperate jug I mixed 1 tsp of red food colouring, 1 tbsp of dishwashing liquid and as much vinegar as could fit into the mixing jug.

Stand the container with the bicarb on a baking tray (to avoid more mess than necessary). Then slide the painted cardboard mountains over the container.

Pour the vinegar solution into the bicarb bottle. The reaction will happen immediately. The solution is bio-degradeable so you can dispense of it in your flower beds or on your lawn.

WALKING WATER

Such a quick and easy experiment to do with the kids! You need 2 see-through containers, a piece of toilet paper and water mixed with food colouring.

Pour the coloured-water mix into one of the containers. Place this container on the top step (or at a higher level). Place the second empty container on the bottom step (or at a lower level). Insert the toilet paper into the coloured-water solution with the other end placed inside the empty container. The water will “walk” into the empty container and because it’s coloured, the kids are able to see how it moves.

The water will actually start dripping into the bottom container thereby having “walked”acrossto the other container. With my boys everything is a competition so they had a race to see whose water would walk the fastest.

RAINBOW PASTA

Boil pasta (or ramen) as usual till cooked to your preference. Divide into equal portions. Add 1/2 tsp of food colouring to each portion. I used Red, Blue and Yellow. Mix all the different coloured noodles together and serve.