Gentle Child Sleep Consultancy &
Early Years Family Life Coach
Play Time with V & Me
Welcome to Play Time with V & Me
I was eating a bag of Skittles when I was reminded of an experiment that we used to do with the children at Nursery. It always elicited great reactions from the children, ranging from gasps and squeals to awe and wonder.
I have developed a few others using Skittles.
There are a variety of experiments and activities suited for different ages. Just watch the little videos and decide which ones are suitable for your little ones.
Everything you need can be found in your kitchen so the only thing you will need to buy is a bag of Skittles. A big bag if you want to nibble a few too!
This is everything you will need for ALL the experiments.
You cannot see it, but there is also a pippette on the tray. If you don't have one just use a teaspoon instead.
# 1 - Colour Sorting for Little Hands
This activity is aimed at the younger audience, but don't be surprised if the older children enjoy it too. There is something deeply satisfying about sorting the colours into their 'proper' place.
The older children can count each colour and see which colour has the most sweets and which has the least. If you are feeling up to it, you could show them how to make a simple bar graph to visually depict the results. If you are not feeling up to it, the children can lay each colour sweet in long lines next to each other to visually see the results.
Extensions:
1) Add tweezers to make it more challenging for the older ones. This also strenthens the hand in preparation for writing.
2) Add different shape and size containers to sort into. This encourages engagement and interest.
3) Test their listening and comprehension using the Skittles. Remember, listening and comprehension are 2 different skills. To test for comprehension, ask your child to give you a certain colour or a certain number. This allows you to see if they understand what 'red' is or what '3' is. To test listening skills, ask your child to give you '3 red Skittles and 2 orange Skittles'. So once you've ascertained they understand what you are asking you can work on listening skills.
# 2 - The Famous Skittles Experiment
This is the experiment that inspired this Play Time with V & Me.
For the very young, they can simply lay out the sweets and watch what happens when the water is added. For the older children, a simple explanation of what is happening should be added.
Before you explain what is going on with the experiment, ask your child what s/he thinks will happen and why. This gets them to think a bit.
So what exactly is going on?
You simply need to say: 'Skittles are coated in food colouring and sugar. The water is melting/dissolving the sugar and food colouring and they are flowing through the water to the places that don't have sugar and food colouring yet. They are spreading/diffusing the sugar and colour around the plate.
Don't be afraid to use the correct terminology. Even if your child does not remember the terms, the seeds have been planted for future learning.
Extensions:
1) Lay out the Skittles in coloured patterns, ie red, yellow, purple, red, yellow, purple, etc. to see what interesting designs you can make.
2) To make rainbows, put 3 sweets of the same colour together to make a nice thick stripe of colour.
3) Make a face - put 2 groups of green for the eyes, 1 large clump of red for the mouth and a line of orange for the nose. Try adding purple for the hair around the top edge of the plate.
# 3 - Dancing Milk
For this experiment lay out your Skittles around the edge of your plate as for #2 above. Replace the water with milk.
The milk will take longer to dissolve the colours so maybe send your little one off to play so that they don't lose interest.
As above, the younger children can simply watch and a simple explanation can be added for the older children. You can simply say: 'The milk is made up of fats and the soap attracts fats. So when we add the soap, the fat molecules run around trying to join up/bond with the soap. The colour is already in the milk so we see the colours moving.'
Extensions:
1) Use different liquids to see which ones melt the colour off the Skittles fastest. You can try Sprite, oil, vinegar, etc. Remember to ask your children what they think will happen before doing the experiment and then test their theories.
2) Use different temperature liquids and see if there is a difference in how quickly the colours start to spread. Again ask their thoughts before doing it.
3) Use different sweets and see how their colours dissolve and diffuse. You could use M&M's or Smarties or any other coloured sweet. It does not matter if it doesn't work. That is learning too!
# 4 - Separating Colours
This experiment is showing the children chromatography. Please teach this amazing word to your children. All you need to say is: 'Chromatography is the separation of mixtures. So with our Skittles, we have separated the colours into other colours.'
As always, ask them what they think will happen before you actually do the experiment.
Again the younger children can put the sweets on the paper towel, add the water and watch what happens. Add a simple explanation for the older children. You could say: 'Can you see the blue around the purple sweet? And the yellow further down the green sweet's paper? That is because blue and red make up purple and yellow and blue make up green. We have separated them out!'
You can also teach them about colour gradient, showing them how the colours go from darker to lighter as they move further away from the sweets.
Extensions:
1) Let the children experiment with all the colours and see what new colours they can create. Give them the little clear glass bowl with some water and let them put 2 colours together and see what colour is created. Don't be surprised if they end up with brown or black most of the time!
2) Do a comparison experiment with M&M's and/or Smarties. Once you have the coloured strips of kitchen paper, you compare the green from the Skittles, M&M's and Smarties. Do all the greens have the same colour patterns? Compare all the like colours and then compare all the colours.
The final result!
Last but not least you can eat the remaining sweets and ask the children to describe the flavour of each colour sweet. You could also ask about the texture of the sweets.
Then let them enjoy the remaining Skittles!
Hope you enjoy Play Time with V & Me.
Let me know how it goes.
Ciao 4 now
Vi
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