Montessori Nursery

National Science Week

For National Science Week, we invited parents to join us in creating a variety of different rainbows with the children. Three rainbow experiments took place: exploding colours (using bicarbonate of soda, food colouring and white vinegar), dripping colours (using water, shaving foam and food colouring) and merging colours (using skittles and warm water).

Exploding colours – the children helped change the colour of the white bicarbonate of soda powder by stirring in some food colouring. They then learned that the acid from the vinegar would make the powder fizz and explode just like a volcano.

They used their fine motor skills for stirring, squeezing the food colouring into the pot and pouring. They used their listening and focusing skills to watch, listen and learn. They used their turn taking skills to wait for their turn. They enjoyed the ‘sciencey’ bit and some of the older ones related it to volcanic explosions – using their understanding of the world and language skills.

Dripping colours – the children helped pour the water into the cups and squirt the shaving foam into the cups. They poked holes in the shaving foam and then squeezed the food colouring onto the shaving foam and watched as it dripped through the shaving foam and into the water, creating little streams of colour before all the water merged and changed colour. With this experiment they also learned about density as well. They learned and noticed that the shaving foam stayed on top of the water which meant it ‘floated’ and was therefore lighter than water.

Merging colours – the children helped to place the skittles around the white plate and then pour some warm water into the centre of the plate. They watched as the colour from the skittles merged into the centre of the plate, creating a beautiful rainbow. Not only did they demonstrate great fine motor skills with the three finger tripod grip to place the skittles, and their ability to pour from a jug, but they also demonstrated the ability to stop themselves from eating the skittles!

We were very lucky and very grateful to the parents who came in to do these experiments with and for the children. This was a great example of our parent partnership and a wonderful and colourful way to celebrate National Science Week.