Easy Experiments – Making Color Disappear

Most kids have a natural curiosity about the world and the way things work. That makes it easy to teach them some basic science concepts in fun hands-on ways. In the past we have done a Magnet Exploration which proved to be very engaging. Today, I am sharing another one of our Easy Experiments. Making Color Disappear seems very magical for kids, but there are some scientific concepts at work.

Easy Experiments

You will need:

• See through cups
• Water
• Food Coloring
• Bleach
• Pipette

Like most easy experiments, this requires adult supervision. I would say it requires extra adult supervision because of the bleach. Do not let your child handle the bleach. Anytime bleach is added make sure an adult is adding it and that children are not inhaling any fumes.

With that out of the way, fill up 4 cups halfway with water. Next have your child add one drop of food coloring to each cup. Most food coloring packages come with four colors, so we used one drop of each color in each cup.

Have your child observe and describe the changes that occurred in the water.

Next, ask if they think it is possible to make the color disappear from the cup. My kids said no, so we decided to try and make the color disappear by using bleach.

I filled up a small cup with bleach and I used a pipette to add drops of bleach to the water cups. We waited to see what would happen. When I added one pipette full of bleach, nothing happened to the color. After I added a second pipette, we started to notice the yellow color getting lighter.

After I added a third pipette of bleach the yellow color almost completely disappeared. The kids were amazed! Why did this happen? You can learn more about how bleach works here.

We had less luck with the others colors. They each just turned into lighter shades. Interestingly, the blue and green cups turned almost identical.

What I really love about doing easy experiments with the kids is that it often evolves into something else when the kids come up with more questions. After the color disappeared from the yellow cup, the kids wondered what would happen if we added food coloring back to the cup which now contained water and bleach. I had no idea, so we decided to give it a try. I filled one cup up with just water and we added a few drops of red food coloring. As you can see the color dispersed and turned the water red.

But when we added some food coloring the bleach/water cup, the food coloring stayed in one spot and did not disperse. My kids were impressed with the cool effect this produced.

If your child loves easy experiments check out:

Simple Science for Preschoolers

Index Card Chain

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