Science Experiment with Colors!

My husband and I both have science degrees so it only goes to say that our daughter would be exposed to a lot of science and a lot of experiments in an effort to show her how fun science and learning can be.  In an effort to teach her with proper items I wanted test tubes, a bulb syringe, and other things to help make this an authentic science experiment.  Unfortunately, we don't have all of those things (and they can get kinda expensive).  So...we improvised.  Instead of large test tubes to hold the primary colors (red, yellow, and blue) we used cheap plastic cups I got at the Dollar Tree (2 for $1).  Instead of the smaller test tubes, we used a white ice tray we had sitting around in the garage.  I was going to use the white paper cups we had for the bathroom when we brush our teeth but my husband suggested the ice tray.  (It worked quite nicely.)  Instead of the bulb syringe, we used a measuring spoon.  I thought about using food coloring but decided to go with the fizzy bath tablets we got at walmart to color the water.  They worked great.  I put two in each cup.  After wards I realized one in the red and one in the blue would have been fine.  They were too dark to see a good purple when you mixed them together.  I also put it all in a big tub on top of a plastic table cloth.  (She's sitting in my living room floor!!!)  It's a hardwood floor so I'm not as brave as you think.

 

Daphne is mixing away and having a blast.  Sometimes I guided her to get a specific color.  I wanted to make sure she mixed each one to find all of the different colors she could make.  After that, I let her experiment away.

 

Shortly after this picture she decided it was taking too long and decided to pick up each cup and dump everything into the ice tray.  Once it became a blackish brown she just dumped everything into the tub and started transferring from one cup to another. The object of this activity is over, but she's still having fun.  At first I was worried about her getting the water outside of the tub, but now I'm just not so worried about it.  Since we didn't use food coloring I'm not worried about it staining anything.  But please don't put them in something pretty or special just in the off chance it does stain.