Moving Milk Rainbow!

This one is an awesome experiment if you have 5 minutes to spare... I did it while my kids were driving me crazy - I needed them to sit and amuse themselves (and not annoy each other!) while I quickly finished off dinner.

Also a good idea if your little one asks you if it is "Science 'Expeniment' Monday" (no that wasn't a typo) on a Friday - quick and easy and all the things you need for it should be right there in your kitchen, ready to satisfy a curious mind (or 2!).

All you need is a plate, some milk, food colouring and a drop of dishwashing detergent.

First, you pour the milk into the plate.

Then ask your little ones to put a few drops of food colouring into the milk (I just learned that if food colouring gets on their fingers try to wash it off with toothpaste or lemon - it works a treat!)

Then all you need to do is drop in 1 drop of dish washing detergent into the milk - and watch the results.  It is actually quite amazing how the milk reacts to the dishwashing detergent.  My kids loved watching the swirls and patterns that it made.

When the milk mixture stopped moving, E added another drop of detergent - and the movement started all over again! They dropped in about 2 more drops of detergent until all the colours had mixed together - N even noticed we had (coincidentally) made the same colour as the detergent!

Then of course the experiment took another unexpected turn - the kids started blowing on the milk and detergent mixture to see what happened - it made the swirls faster and made the kids giggle - priceless!

 

What a great way to discuss mixing colours (no paints needed for this one!!).

Very, very cool!

Looking for other 5 minute science experiments to pass the time?
Try:

Dancing Sultanas
Explaining Rain