It’s high time we share one of our favorite science experiments EVER here on the blog. Now I have to say up front that I do not claim this idea by any means, in fact I can’t even cite for sure where I first saw this idea because so many different blogs feature this experiment. Just Google “Walking Water” and you’ll see what I mean. However I think first followed the instructions that I saw on ParentingChaos, because I remember liking the name “crawling colors,” whereas everywhere else called it walking water. I’m not sure how to give this experiment an equally cute name in Spanish… Colores que gatean? Colores que trepan? Colores caminantes? In the comments, feel free to suggest a catchy name!
The reason we love this experiment here at Bilingüitos is that it goes perfectly with our “Colores, Colores” week. One of our first weekly themes of the school year is always colors. We like to do it early in the year since colors is applicable to every single theme that follows – colors are everywhere! It’s also one of those vocabulary sets that most kids with any level Spanish experience knows at least in part, so it boosts their confidence when we’re talking about a theme they already know about. And those who don’t the colors yet, well, they catch on quickly!
It’s also a fun experiment because we can go beyond basic vocabulary and talk about what’s at play: water absorption and color mixing! It also allows us to discuss the idea of primary vs. secondary colors. We have kids formulate their hypothesis for what’s going to happen, which is a fun skill to work on at any age. Older kids are generally spot on (again, confidence booster) and younger kids are floored by the “magic” of the rainbow appearing the next day!
Materials
You ready to make your own creeping, crawling colors? Here’s what you’ll need:
- Seven same-size plastic cups
- Food coloring in primary colors
- Water
- Six paper towels
- Labels & a marker
For the cups, you could do mason jars if you have them, we’ve always just used clear cocktail cups that have worked just fine. For the food coloring, drops work best, but we’ve had to use gel colors in the past and we’ve made it work. For some reason my local grocery store doesn’t color liquid food coloring anymore! For the labels, you might opt to use different color markers to label the different colors as an added pop of color. Don’t leave out the step of labeling though, as it’s a huge part of the language aspect!
Procedure
Once you have your materials, the procedure is as follows (and your kiddos can help at every step as much as they’re able):
1. Fill the seven cups with water; four of the cups need only be halfway full and three of the cups can even less, like one third of the way full. The less full ones will be where the colors come together.
2. Arrange the cups in a line, alternating between the halfway full ones and the 1/3 of the way full ones.
3. Mix in the food coloring, one color for each of the halfway full cup: red, yellow, blue, and then red again. Make sure you skip every other cup (this is where the secondary colors will appear). In other words, your cups should be now red, clear, yellow, clear, blue, clear, and red again. Because this is a language activity as much as it is a science experiment, we label our colors “rojo” “azul” “amarillo” y “rojo,” and then leave the clear ones blank (for now).
4. Take your paper towels and fold them a few times until they’re shaped and sized more or less like a standard ruler. You’ll need six ruler-sized paper towels in total.
5. Place one end of a paper towel in the red cup and the other end of that same paper towel in the clear cup next to it. Then continue with the other paper towels going down the line, from the clear cup to the yellow, from the yellow to the clear, etc.
6. Leave the colors alone for a few hours and then come and check on them! We started to see the magic happen around the two hour mark but truly the greatest surprise was the following morning once the colors had time to absorb all the way into the paper towels and mix together in the clear cups. We then label the secondary colors that formed.
7. Discuss! Remember to tell the kids that NO ONE ADDED ANYTHING EXTRA to the experiment after you put in the primary colors and paper towels. Or in other words, that the secondary colors appeared on their own due to the water absorption and color mixing of the primary colors. That is the “magic” of it!
Discussion
Here are some prompts and discussion points in Spanish that you can use with your kids!
First while you’re prepping the experiment:
Vamos a llenar los vasos con agua. (We’re going to fill the glasses with water)
Ahora vamos a agregar el colorante – tenemos tres colores, los colores primarios. ¿Cuáles son? *child responds* ¡Sí! Rojo, amarillo y azul. (Now let’s add food coloring – we have three colors, the primary colors. What are they?)
¿Por qué no vamos a usar otros colores, tienes alguna idea? *child answers* Hmm, ¡quizás! (Why aren’t we going to use other colors, do you have any idea why? Hmm, maybe!)
¿Puedes ayudarme a mezclar el colorante en el agua? (Can you help me to mix the coloring in the water?)
Ahora tenemos que poner estas toallas de papel así – con un extremo en un vaso que tiene color y un extremo en un vaso sin color. ¿Me ayudas? (Now we have to put these paper towels like this – with one end in a cup that has colored water and the other end in a cup with no color.)
Muy bien, ahora lo vamos a dejar un rato para ver que pasa con los colores! Qué crees que va a pasar? (Great, now we’re going to leave it for a while so we can see what happens with the colors. What do you think will happen?)
After a few hours, you come back to see what happened…
¡Wow, mira! ¿Qué ha pasado aquí? ¿Qué ves? *child answers* (Wow, look! What happened here? What do you see?)
Sí, ¡ahora hay un arcoiris! (Yes! There’s a rainbow now!)
Los colores se han mezclado y ahora hay muchos colores! (The colors mixed together and now there are lots of colors!)
¿Cuáles colores pusimos nosotros? ¿Y cuáles colores más aparecieron? Sí, el anaranjado, el verde, y el morado han aparecido. Nosotros solo pusimos el rojo, el amarillo, y el azul. (What colors did we put in? And what other colors appeared? Yes orange, green, and purple appeared! We only put red, yellow, and blue.)
Los colores que nosotros pusimos son los colores primarios. Los nuevos son los colores secundarios. (The colors that we put in are the primary colors. The new ones are the secondary colors)
¿Cómo surgieron nuevos colores si nosotros no lo tocamos después de poner rojo, amarillo, y azul? *child answers what they think* (How did we get new colors if we didn’t touch the experiment after putting in red, yellow, and blue?)
Pues, mira, las toallas de papel absorbieron el agua, y el agua subió por el papel y bajó por aquí hasta llegar al vaso sin color. Allí los colores se juntaron y se mezclaron para crear nuevos colores, ¡que chévere! (Because look, the paper towels absorbed the water and the water traveled up the paper towel and down into the clear cup! That’s where the colors joined and mixed together to make new colors, how cool!!!)
We truly hope you enjoy this activity! Let us know in a comment below how it goes, or tag us in a picture of it on Instagram so we can follow along with the fun! www.instagram.com/bilinguitos
