We love simple science experiments. Whether they are a planned part of our school time or a spontaneous activity to break up the day, the girls always get engaged and enjoy making new discoveries. Today I am starting a three part series about a recent set of investigations the girls did using lollipops. We started by experimenting to see what would happen if we put lollipops in water.
If you’ve been following Fantastic Fun and Learning for a while you might remember we’ve previously shared this experiment with marshmallows and candy hearts. It’s great for kids to repeat activities over time. It allows them to compare and contrast different results and build new connections to prior knowledge.
Materials for Science Experiment
This post contains affiliate links.
- Lollipops in assorted colors~We used Dum Dums.
- Warm water~We added ours to an easy pour container so the kids could add as little or as much water to their containers as they liked.
- Small dishes~We used various sizes. I tried to use all clear so the kids could easily see and compare the different colors made.
The girls started by sorting their lollipops by the colors on the wrappers. I sat back and watched as they worked together to figure out how many piles they needed and which lollipops needed to go in which group.
I was secretly thrilled when they decided later that they wanted to divide the groups by flavor, too. This allowed them practice sorting by two attributes instead of one.
They also chose to set aside flavors they didn’t like and the “mystery” lollipops.
Next they added warm water to their containers.
Because there were multiple flavors of each color they then had to decide what to do with each group. Would they put ALL the red lollipops in one container? Would they separate them by flavor?
They decided to choose different flavors. When they got to the red lollipops, one child took all the watermelon. The other took all the strawberry. One they got to blue, one child took all the blue raspberry and the other took all the cotton candy. It worked out well overall, and I was very impressed by their planning and discussions throughout the process.
As they added to lollipops to their containers, they were excited to see the water quickly changing color as they expected.
After waiting just a bit longer they noticed that all of the lollipops had dissolved completely.
You can also check out our other science experiments related to dissolving.
More Fun with Dissolving Science Experiments
More Math and Science Activities with Fizz, Pop, Bang!
Fizz, Pop, Bang! Playful Science and Math Activities is designed to bring hands-on fun to math and science play. It’s full of engaging and powerful learning opportunities in math and science, shared through ideas that incorporate art, play, sensory learning and discovery, for a whole-brain approach.
It includes 40 educational projects and 20 printables including a set of build-your-own 3D shape blocks, engineering challenge cards and a range of math games.