Mom to 2 Posh Lil Divas: Ice

Showing posts with label Ice. Show all posts

Thursday, July 26, 2012

Homemade Frozen Food Color Tie Dye Shirts

Ever had one of those "GREAT" ideas

that turned out to be way messier than you ever anticipated?

Well, be forewarned......

this little project turned out was COOL

but was also seriously MESSY!

We had food coloring stained body parts for days.

This idea sprang from my desire to do something both different and cool for ICY FUN Week. I decided to freeze food coloring and use it to tie dye some tank tops. I wasn't sure if it would actually work but figured it was worth trying.

IT WORKED!

Prep: I used regular and neon color food coloring. I used 4 packs to fill one ice cube tray. Each bottle was in its own compartment and I topped each with water to fill them.

Now onto the messy part! Be sure to dress for mess, use gloves and cover your work space. We worked outside both to prevent staining our furniture and so that the sun could help the frozen food coloring melt onto the shirts.

The Oldest Diva opted to go the traditional tie dye route. We tied the shirt up with various rubber bands as she wanted. The Littlest Diva wanted to freely paint/splatter on her shirt.

As the frozen cubes melted, it got both messier and easier to work with them. I personally think it would have been better to use less colors but given so many choices, of course they felt the need to use them all. I would suggest limiting yourself to 3 colors or so. I think we would have had more color definition - our shirts got a little muddy.

Once the cubes began to melt off the sticks the Lil Divas just dug in with their hands. This actually helped spread the food color really well. We just let the chunks melt on the shirts.

This is the Oldest Divas tie dye shirt. It came out pretty awesome! She really liked the sunburst designs that ended up on the shirt where the rubber bands had been applied.

As I previously mentioned, the Littlest Diva opted to freely paint on her shirt. She worked on both sides. Painting/Splattering/Dripping/Smearing the food color onto the top.

I was worried about how it would look. It didn't look so good (to me) when she decided she was done but the colors continued to bleed/blend as we left it to dry and the final result actually turned out much better than I had anticipated.

We let the shirts dry overnight to set. The following day, I rinsed them with vinegar and water to help set the colors. After rinsing them out I put them in the dryer (hoping to set the colors) I have to say that tie dyeing with food color isn't as bright as the store bought tie dyes - a lot of the color came out while rinsing. I knew that would happen. Remember, this was more about us trying a different process than what the final product would look like.

This was a messy but fun project and the Lil Divas are quite proud of their Homemade Frozen Food Color Tie Dye Tank Tops!

Note - I have not washed them in soap and water yet, so I', not sure how long these will last and if the colors have permanently set in or if they will continue to fade.

Happy Frozen Tie Dyeing!

Bern

Tuesday, July 24, 2012

What Melts Ice the Fastest? A Hands-on Science Experiment

It's ICY FUN WEEK!

I can't think of a better way to beat this FL heat and humidity

(besides taking a dip in the pool of course).

It's been awhile since we had fun with a science experiment so I really wanted to incorporate some investigation, experimentation and discovery into our ICY FUN WEEK.

What Melts Ice the Fastest?

A Hands-on Science Experiment

What We Used:

1. hot water

2. salt

3. sugar

4. vinegar

5. baking soda

Prep: Freeze cups of water - 1 for each substance used.

What to Do:

1. Remove ice from cups and put on a dish or tray (be sure it's deep enough to retain the melting ice water).

2. Have substances to be used readily available along with spoons and droppers for pouring. We used measuring scoops and turkey basters. To begin we discussed what we were to do and the Lil Divas made predictions over which items they thought would melt the ice the fastest.

3. Have child(ren) add substances to each ice block and note the immediate reactions. Did it affect the ice? Is it penetrating? Did it cause the ice to melt?

4. Let sit for approx. 5 minutes. Turn the ice blocks over and repeat - add the substances and discuss any reactions.

5. Let sit for approx. another 5 minutes and discuss what has happened to the ice. Which one is melting the fastest? Slowest? Discuss any noticeable changes - cracks, holes, etc in the ice.

Our Results:

The Lil Divas found that hot water melted our ice the fastest, followed by vinegar, salt (which penetrated the ice and caused lots of holes and cracks) and then sugar (it also penetrated the ice and caused cracks but not nearly as pronounced as the salt). The baking soda had very little effect on the ice. It was the one block of ice that remained pretty intact, melting mostly due to exposure to the heat in the room and the other liquids in the pan.

The Lil Divas enjoyed our icy experiment. We ended up watching the ice melt to its complete liquid form at their request, while they continued to scoop the different substances on the ice. I think they rather enjoyed the concoction the whole thing was making since we inevitably ended up with some fizz from the baking soda and vinegar being so close together and mingling in the pan.

Be sure to discuss if the predictions made were correct and what was learned. The Lil Divas were quite surprised that baking soda had little to no effect on the ice and that sugar did in fact make cracks in the ice. They initially thought the sugar would have little effect and that the baking soda would - I think that stemmed from all of our past baking soda & vinegar experiments.

Do you know of any other substances that have an interesting effect on ice?

Bern