Mar 30 11
by cara
at 6:21 AM
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Does It Dissolve?

Here’s another fun hands-on activity to keep curious hands occupied and learning at the same time!  I read about this dissolving activity at Totally Tots, and we did this one morning during Spring Break.

Does It Dissolve?

First, I explained the definition of “dissolve”-when something breaks into pieces so small that you can no longer see it.

Then I presented eight different substances for The Littlest Apple to experiment with (7 are pictured below, the 8th was instant tea).  Each substance was labeled with a post it note (I’m starting to work with him on sounding out words and word recognition).

The Littlest Apple had to predict whether each substance would dissolve or not.  Then he dumped it in to a pitcher of water and stirrred, stirred, stirred.  Dumping and stirring–right up The Littlest Apple’s alley!

Then we evaluated whether his prediction was right, and he moved the post it note label to another area of the counter with 2 post its labeled “dissolve” and “no”.

The Littlest Apple had such a great time with this, and I was surprised at how well he followed along with the steps for the process (hypothesis, experiment, result).

The only thing I might change next time is to have a separate bowl/cup/container of water for each substance.  Once we put some of the things that didn’t dissolve into the water, it made it harder to discern which things were dissolving.

I’m hoping to share more “science” activities like this in the future!

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17 Comments
  1. Cassie permalink

    How old is the littlest apple? I’m only curious because this seems like a great learning expieriment, my oldest son is fixing to be 3, is that a good age to do it?

  2. Anonymous permalink

    The Littlest Apple is 3 1/2 years old. I’ll bet your guy would love this! I’d say you could do this with ages 2 1/2 and older (with supervision). Happy dissolving! 🙂

  3. Play2grow permalink

    I love this science experiment. This would be fun to try with the toddlers and preschoolers I work with. I’ve linked up to your post here: http://play2grow.blogspot.com/2011/04/weekly-favorites-for-april-3-2011.html

  4. I love this idea. It is hard to come up with science experiments for very young kids where the science aspect really means anything to them, and the set up doesn’t completely dwarf the time spent on the activity. This seems like it would be a lot of fun. I have starred it in my reader to try soon. Thanks!

  5. Anonymous permalink

    Thanks for mentioning this experiment in your post! Have a great week!

  6. Great activity! Meaningful, easy, frugal, and fun!! Thanks for the idea.

  7. Great idea & fun. I know my 3 year old will love this and I am always looking for good science experiment type things that are good for preschool.

  8. Cassie permalink

    Thanks! We are definitely going to do this! 🙂

  9. Anonymous permalink

    Lynn,

    I know exactly what you mean! Science experiments for this age are hard hard. I’ve done several (one I’ll share soon) where the setup took a LONG time, and the experiment lasted all of 5 seconds. This one is definitely easy!

  10. Counting Coconuts permalink

    F-U-N!! Just posted this on my CC Facebook page. 🙂

  11. This is sooo perfect! My daughter will love it, although I can see what you mean about seperate containers! I’m bookmarking so I don’t forget. Thanks for sharing.

  12. Saswashington permalink

    this is awesome!!  we are currently doing a rust experiment in my home with nails and different liquids.

  13. Thanks for sharing this! I did something similar today with my class and the kids had a lot of fun. Thank you for the idea!

  14. Mimicomama permalink

    This was awesome fun with my almost 5-year-old!

    We used: tea, salt, sugar cube, chocolate chips, hot chocolate mix, koolaid, coconut flakes, cinnamon, flour, pasta, and mini marshmallows. We also talked about whether each thing sinks or floats – tying in with a science unit he is doing at school.

    Lots of fun and great discussion.

    I used the same pitcher but emptied it each time and made sure to use warm water to speed up the disssolving since he was starting to get bored with stirring some things too long.

  15. Edith Modjadji permalink

    i will be able to teach my grade 6 learners about dissolving

  16. maryam permalink

    hi,awesome

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