How do flowers get water up from the ground or a vase and into their stems, leaves, and petals? Your child will learn about the forces that can move liquids, including gravity and suction, about how plants are able to nourish themselves with clever mechanics, and about colors and color mixing. Your preschooler will also end up with a unique custom-dyed flower!

What You Need

• Water
• One or two clear jars or plastic containers
• White carnations
• Food coloring

What You Do

1. Fill a clear jar about halfway with water.
2. Ask your child to choose a color. Add quite a lot of food coloring to the water jar. Your child can help with this if he wants to, but watch out for his clothes!
3. Cut off several inches from the bottom of the stem of a white carnation and then ask your child to put it in the jar.
4. Observe it every day to see if the food coloring can be seen in the petals.
5. If you want to get fancy, use two jars and two colors, and split the carnation stem between the two jars of colored water. What happens to the petals?

What You Talk About

• How did the color get into the stem/leaves/flower? Did it have to go up or down to get to the petals?
• Does water usually move up or down?
• Explain to your child: The important thing about capillarity is that it can make water move up. This is opposite the direction water usually moves, which is down due to gravity. The tiny pieces of water that can get into tiny tubes in the flower are small enough to be drawn upwards by being attracted to the sides of the tubes or capillaries in the stem. The attraction is stronger than the pull of gravity.

Try making more flowers of different colors! They make great gifts and give your child an opportunity to show off his newfound scientific knowledge.

Exploring Ice!

What you will need for ALL the Ice Experiments:

• Ice cubes
• Water (different temperatures)
• Paper cups
• Bowls
• Marker/pen
• Timer or watch/clock
• String
• Salt

Which takes up more space?

Fill a clear or paper cup half-way with water. Make the water line with a marker. Add an ice cube and mark the new water line. Wait for the ice to melt. Did the water line change at all?

How long does it take ice to melt?

Put an ice cube into a few different cups. Put the paper cups into various locations around your house. Some examples include outside in the sun, in the shade, in a hot car, in a pantry, in a bathroom or in a refrigerator. Using a timer, time how long it takes for each ice cube to completely melt. Have your preschooler run around the house to find out which one melts the fastest.

What makes it melt faster?

Provide your preschooler with two bowls of water - one very warm (but not scalding), the other very cold. Let your child make observations about the temperature of the water (by testing it with their fingers). Then have them consider what will happen if you put an ice cube in each bowl. Ask your child to make a guess. Which cube will melt faster? Why? Watch the ice cubes closely and discuss outcomes.

And... just for fun... Ice Magic

Fill a glass with water and add one ice cube. Let a child lay a piece of string across the ice and try to pick up the ice with the string. Sprinkle a little salt over the ice cube, count to 10 and have child try again. Show your child how the salt melted the ice just enough to bond around the string.