Oil & Vinegar

Oil & Vinegar

 

The warm and sunny days have kept us all pretty busy outdoors, but we did have some time for a little science experiment this week.  It seems that the boys really enjoy these experiment type activities.  It’s fun to hear what they think will happen (MAKING PREDICTIONS) and then see their reaction.  They really love playing with water – pouring and dumping – plus they never tire of bubbles, so this experiment seemed like something they would totally enjoy and they did!

Here’s what you’ll need:

Baby oil

Vinegar

Food coloring

Small bowls

Shallow bowl/serving tray

Pipette or eye dropper

 

 

Eye droppers have been hard to find, so I usually end up cleaning one that came with a medicine bottle and using that.  The eye droppers have been difficult for them to use independtly though, which takes some fun out of it.  I recently saw pipettes being used instead so I decided to give them a try.  WAY better!  I bought ours at a teacher supply store, but amazon has them as well.  Definitely something you can rinse and reuse.  Michael (almost 2!) and Anthony (3 ½) were both able to work them very easily.  So if you try this with your younger child, I definitely recommend getting the pipettes. 

 

To set up, place a table cloth or towel (or both) on your play space.  Fill the shallow bowl or tray with baby oil.  Then, pour vinegar in a few separate bowls and add different color food coloring to each. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I asked the boys what they thought would happen if we poured the vinegar into the oil and they just thought about the different colors being added in.  I demonstrated first by sucking some colored water into the pipette and squirting it into the oil.  It formed a circle of color in the oil.  Looked like just a blue bubble floating in the oil, which they loved. 

 

I let them each pick a color and they carefully (I was surprised at how careful they were on their own) squirted it into the oil.  I stayed super close because there were times when the vinegar was squirted everywhere rather than into the oil.  We talked about the different COLORS and then about which colors mix together to make new colors.  Anthony knew about this from school.

 

We squirted different colors and amounts into the oil and watched as the colored circle floated around.  We noticed that we couldn’t pop these kind of bubbles!

 

 

I was surprised at how long the boys stayed squirting the vinegar into the oil – they seemed so focused!  I really like science experiments to facilitate language learning.  They tend to create a unique experience and give way to HIGHER LEVEL THINKING.  It provides an opportunity to MODEL LANGUAGE that you might not use on a daily basis and RETELLING the experience is a great language skill to build on. 

Next time, I’d like to try squirting the vinegar into water – it would be nice to have them COMPARE what happens with each liquid.

Hope you get to try this one out with your little one!

Love & Language,

Marisa