Water Mixing Experiments -

Links provided for your convenience in my posts also help to provide the needed means to support this site and our family. Homeschooling mamas need to keep their coffee cups filled, right? 😉 We appreciate your support of our corner of the web. Click here for more information

Whenever we do science experiments, I always hear a voice in my head shouting, “To the Laboratory!,” followed by maniacal laughter. Just me? Have to add some spice to our homeschool lessons! Recently, we decided to choose a science activity from The Usborne Book of Science Activities, Volume 1. This book is a combined volume of several of the Usborne science titles and is designed “to help children investigate the intriguing properties of water, light, mirrors and magnets.” We chose to have some fun with water mixing.

Water Mixing Supplies

I gathered up several jars that I keep on hand for various crafting or other purposes and we chose six different substances to mix:

grape KoolAid
olive oil
wheat flour
table salt
dish detergent
grape jelly

We also decided to experiment with each thing twice–once in cold water and another time in hot. I provided them with plastic cutlery for stirring and we dove right in!

My two oldest did this together. One would stir the cold water mixture and the other would stir the hot water. We started with the KoolAid. I poured half the package in each jar and they stirred it up. We talked about what happened to it, whether there were differences in the hot and cold water, what the substance smelled like, and if it made the water have a different texture.

We followed with the oil, flour, jelly, salt, and dish detergent.

Swish, swish, swish.

We also talked about the substances that did not dissolve in the water which led to a brief lesson in density.

This was a fun water mixing activity that gave us the opportunity to talk about basic science topics without it feeling like learning. That’s always the best kind of activity!

When we’d finished with all six things, the kids asked if they could then mix the various jars together to see what would happen. I told them to have at it and that led to well over an hour of “potion mixing” and “volcano making” and all sorts of hullabaloo. A great way for them to spend an afternoon!