Fun Color Experiment

Step one:  Pour milk into a shallow dish.  Drip 4 little blobs of food coloring near the middle, like so:

Step 2:  Gently drop one drop of non-moisturizing dish soap in the very center.  The colors will swirl around and look really cool for quite a while!

Here's why it works!

Snow Spray Paint

Food coloring and water in a spray bottle make awesome earth-safe spray paints!  Experiment with spray settings.  Write messages to passersby on your lawn!  Watch your creations melt!

If you don't have an old spray bottle in your recycling bin, you can find them in the cosmetics section of most drug stores and dollar stores.

I checked with the ASPCA and they said food coloring is pet-safe, but if your dogs are prone to eating snow but they might pee rainbows for a little while.  Do not be alarmed.

Bubble Painting

Bubble Painting is fun and cheap and totally addictive.  Make little cups- a ramekin or little yogurt cups will do fine, though something short is better for bubbling-purposes here.

Mix about 1/4 to 1/2 cup of water with a little squeeze of dish soap in each of your containers.  Add a LOT of food coloring.  Blow with a straw till you've got a nice dome of bubbles over the container.  Gently blot a piece of paper down on top of them to "catch" the bubbles.

This picture is dark but they do turn out very cool, I promise!

I recommend a smaller piece of paper (1/4 a sheet of printer paper) so you can catch your bubbles without worrying about picking up nearby bubbles.  Try layering one color on top of another!  Like the blow painting paper, this final product can be used to stationary, paper collages, etc.

These dry very quickly and will be touch-safe within a few minutes.

P.S.  My mom adds:  "for bubble painting, the adult who is not as familiar with the tendencies of participants might want to demonstrate/practice "blow" vs. "suck" and/or make a tiny pin prick in the straw, between the bend and the mouth!"

Blow Paintings

Blow paintings are fun and easy!

Printer paper works better than construction paper for this project because it doesn't absorb as quicky.

Lots of kids will tend to suck instead of blow at least once by accident (it's a straw after all!) so food coloring is better than paint here.  To reinforce the concept of "blowing," you can have them practice feeling the air against their hands first, or blowing a little ball of tissue across the table.

Using small cups or a muffin tin, make several different colors of nontoxic dye out of about 1/4 cup water and a lot of food coloring.  You'll want it to be pretty concentrated so the color shows up.


Lay down newspaper or do this project inside a baking dish.  Giving each kid his or her own straw and having a rinse cup to use in between, use the finger-over-the-tip method to transport one drop of the dye onto a piece of paper.  Blow into the end and watch the color splatter across the paper.  Super cool!  Try adding different colors and going in different directions.  Try mixing colors!  The kids can leave this paper as is, or use it to make stationary, wrapping paper, paper collages, or a million other things.

Remember to take "Regular Breathing Breaks" so no one gets light-headed!