Materials
3 clear glass one-gallon (1 L) apple juice bottles Red, yellow and blue food coloring in droppers or squeeze bottles
Water
Long, slender stir stick
Instructions
1. Before class, soak the labels off and thoroughly wash the glass bottles. Fill each almost to the top with water.
2. Discuss with the children the blending and mixing of primary colors to create secondary colors. Then ask all the children to gather around the bottles of water. 3. Slowly put 6 drops of yellow food color into the water and watch as it streaks. Use the long stick to swirl it a bit and see how the color becomes unified. Wait for the water to become still.
4. Slowly add 3 drops of red food coloring and watch as streaks of orange appear. Eventually, swirl the water again to see the unified orange color appear.
5. Continue this method with the other two bottles to make green and purple. For the second bottle, use 6 drops of yellow with 2 or 3 drops of blue to make green. For the third bottle, use 3 or 4 drops of red and 2 or 3 of blue to make purple.More to doMore science: Ask for suggestions of other colors to add after the secondary colors are made (brown and black are easy to achieve). * For a learning center, have available baby food jars; pitchers of water; a bucket for dumping used water; bottles of red, yellow, blue and white liquid tempera paint; and small stir sticks. Children experiment with mixing colors in jars half filled with water to create secondary colors as well as shades of colors using the white. * Shine a flashlight through the bottles during the different steps of the process.Music: Play soft, relaxing music in the background. Children may lie on the floor in a semicircle facing the bottles. Ask the children what they observe about quiet time with the addition of a color to focus on.
