This has got to be one of the easiest Science experiments to set up. All you need is milk (and love, of course), dishwashing soap, and some food colouring. I love it when I don't have to run out to the store to get something that I'm just going to use once for one experiment or one craft session. I had all the materials! Whoopie!
This took me 3 undisturbed minutes to set up. Probably a bit longer if I had to put one foot on baby to keep her far away and prevent her from drinking the milk or flipping everything over.
I used medicine cups to contain the food colouring, and then put little dots on tissue as indication since most of the dark colours look very alike when very concentrated. You can use a mini paint palette as well.
Step 1: Pour milk (and it has to be 2% fat or more. We used Farmhouse milk) into a dish. Make sure that it covers the entire bottom part of the dish.
Step 2: Dab cotton bud into selected food colouring tub, then put into milk tray. Just dab, you don't need to stir it. Repeat with the other colours if you like. It's really nice to see the colours spreading out. Ours came out like stars. But wait, the real magic is coming up.
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Step 3: Dab cotton bud into dishwashing liquid and then put it into the tray with milk and colouring. Again, just dab, don't stir. Don't take your eyes off the milk tray because magic will unfold before your very eyes!
The soap will cause the colours to swirl in really pretty circular movements. And the best part is that you can keep doing it over and over. Colour, soap, colour, soap, colour, soap. Magic, magic, magic!
It's so fun to just watch the colours in action. We even invited Calla and she too was mesmorized.
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Poppy is 5 and she was thrilled by the dancing colours, so I left it at that for now. I must say I was pretty impressed too. But if you have an older child and want to explain the Science behind it, the fat molecules in the milk react to the introduction of the soap, and as such, the milk (with the colours) folls around. The movement will slow down or stop when the soap is evenly mixed. So just add more soap for the fun to continue!
PS Actually we have a video that shows the action of this experiment really nicely, but I can't figure out how to turn the sound off, and there was Calla crying in the background - she wanted to join us but was on the other side of the safety gate after a few attempts of trying to do another magic trick: Pull the table cloth and (unsuccessfully) leaving everything in place on the table. So if you want to see this in action, you can search for "milk magic for preschoolers". Or really, just do the experiment!
Disclaimer: Activity time for kids is not nap time for parents. Always be within reach of your children during these activities. Especially babies. They're fond of getting into mischief, and doing things like this:
More activities for preschoolers here