Applause Worthy Preschool Science =)

I have been trying to incorporate a science experiment in my morning circle with my students at least once a week & I have tried all kinds!  Some...did NOT hold their attention.  Of course,  they are 3-5 years old. Why would they care to compare the feeling of different items? But others,  had them clapping and cheering in their seats & made me laugh to myself.  Which ones got that reaction? The most simple experiments which had them guessing what the outcome would be. 

First one....Layering liquids to make a "rainbow" in a jar.
I took a small glass container and brought in 4 plastic cups filled with my mystery rainbow ingredients.  First,  I poured into the glass container some Karo Light Corn syrup with which I mixed in blue & red food coloring to make purple.  I then asked the children what they thought would happen if I poured in some blue dish soap.  Most guessed it would sink or mix.  To their surprise, I poured it in, and it floated on top! So next up,  some green water. Again,  I asked them what they thought would happen and they all shouted out similar sinking & mixing answers....waiting impatiently for me to pour it in.  While waiting I noticed they all were sitting right in their seats in circle,  fixated on the jar. It was nice to see them all focusing and involved! So,  in went the water...and it sat right on top of the dish soap. So now I had 3 layers.  Lastly some yellow vegetable oil!  that went in and I held up or rainbow (missing some orange and red) and they all cheered and clapped and asked me to walk around and show them.  It was a great activity for them because they did not know what would happen and were so excited to find out what was to come. I loved it, they loved it and I was so happy it went well!

Second one....Exploding Milk!
For this one I poured some milk into a shallow round pan,  maybe half an inch worth.  And dropped in various colors of food coloring spread out throughout the milk.  Then I took out my milk exploder....my dish soap. I asked the children what they think would happen if I dropped some dish soap in. I got lots of answers! Many about sinking, floating, disappearing.  So....I had them all lay on their bellies and get ready to watch....and dropped a drop in,  right in the middle of the pan.  As I did the food coloring drops flew across the pan and started swirling around.  They never mixed, the colors stayed very distinct and it looked great! They loved it and even asked a very scientific question "Kristin! What will happen if we put in ANOTHER drop??" So we tried it,  observed, talked...they all cheered and clapped and were all smiles. It was a great experiment because they  had no idea what to expect and the element of surprise kept them right with me the whole time!

These are great because not only are they great for school, but they are both using things that can be found at home!   Here are a couple of photos....(not from mine unfortunately, just google images to give you an idea.)