Last week was glorious in the UK – we were out in the garden most of everyday playing with the various toys that we have for the garden and that J and T brought outside but the inevitable happened…. J picked one of our Daffodils – I remember doing the same as a child and mum turned it into a mini science experiment for us so I decided to do the same for J.
What you need to explore plants for some toddler science
Some food colouring (not the colour of the picked flower)
Water
Jar
How to explore plants for some toddler science
J examining the plant that he had picked - yes he's looking at the pollen on his fingers
Once J had picked the Daffodil from the garden we looked at the flower and I pointed out the petals and then where the nectar is – he knew this from his book -Bee and Me: a Mini-motion Book
J watching over his science experiment just out of reach
Then I put the flower into a glass jar with some water which I had added some blue liquid food colouring to – I added blue as from experience I knew that the colours would mix and green J’s favourite colour would be formed before the bright blue colouring took over. I then put it on a window sill out of J’s reach but within sight so we could see the experiment in action.
J loved the dots around the petals and trumpet
After 2 days the process had completely finished and with the Daffodil flower there was a ring of blue/green dots around the outer edge of the petals and trumpet, as well as some lighter green colouring to the veins within the petals which the food colouring had gone through.
Daffodil showing the progress of the blue food colouring
I explained to J that the flower was drinking the water and you could see where it went by following the blue colour up the stem and into the petals he loved this idea and asks plants that he sees in the garden whether they are thirsty now and if he decides they say yes he goes and waters them. If you want to find out about the actual science behind why this works then check out this post from Science Sparks. All plants do this but some flowers are more effective than others – daffodils produce an interesting pattern as you can see above but Carnations are amazing for the colour impact that the flowers have.
Please remember that the bulbs of daffodils are toxic and hands should always be washed thoroughly after handling flowers of any description
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I never knew that myself that’s really interesting I will try that
oooh your daffodils look brilliant! x
Emma @sciencesparks recently posted..10 fun science activities for preschoolers
I was really surprised at how effective the daffodils were at showing where the pores were – I must remember this for when I return to teaching
You and P always loved doing this as did the children in school. I’m sure that J enjoyed it. All the science projects you are doing are great for building up observation skills and scientific curiousity. You could also try celery for this experiment.
Ohhh yes – I remember doing Celery when we were little
That is a fab way to show transpiration and I have not seen it on daffodils before! Brilliant.
Multiple Mummy recently posted..‘Mummy! I Know what you are going to say!’
We can thank my mum – she used to do it all the time with us – Tulips work really well as well
I simply loved the simplicity of this project. super awesome!
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Thank you
So fun!! We did it with white carnations earlier in the year and played with what colors worked the best.
Carrie recently posted..Happy Family Times #2
We never have any carnations so I haven’t tried them I really should as that is what it is meant to work best with but all flowers work to some extent
i haven’t seen this done with daffodils before, it turned out so pretty (Ok I know that isn’t a very sciencey response).
The Monko recently posted..Positive Parenting
I know – I thought it was great with the dots as well, tulips work really well as well
We tried this with carnations to make a rainbow – blue worked much better than orange and purple.
We decided the secret was not to skimp on dye or time to absorb
Pictures of our results (I took photos every 12 hours) here: http://parenthood.phibian.com/?ID=745
I haven’t used a carnation really must as your pictures show a much better effect than we have with the daffodil
[...] some more educational activities to try and encourage my nearly 3 year old. This week I discovered Rainy Day Mum’s post about toddler science that caught my imagination and made me want to run straight outside to look for [...]
I love this experiment with a daffodil – hadn’t seen it with that particular flower before!
Thanks for sharing with Learning Laboratory =)
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[...] Toddler science experiment – exploring plants | Rainy Day Mum J picked one of our Daffodils – I remember doing the same as a child and mum turned it into a mini science experiment for us so I decided to do the same for J. Montage Message Board From a CardBoard Box My Profile . blue worked much better than orange and purple. We decided the secret was not to skimp on dye or time to absorb
. Pictures of our results (I took photos every 12 hours) here: //parenthood.phibian.com/?ID=745. Cerys @ Rainy Day Mum . [...]