Love water science! Easy activities like this Earth Day water science experiment is perfect preschool science. It is quick to set up, fun to explore and provides fascinating results while teaching important concepts. Hands on learning through play is a great way to introduce science to young children and to celebrate Earth Day.
Explore Absorption For Earth Day
We have done quite a few water science activities! Our Earth Day water science experiment is a fun twist on one of our very first preschool science activities where we tried out exploring absorption. Check it out here.
CHECK OUT: Walking Water Science!
Here we aren’t experimenting with different materials, but instead we added an art component to make it a fun STEAM activity! What is STEAM? It’s an acronym for science, technology, engineering, art, and math.
Soak the pads, mix the colors, and make mini Earths. This Earth Day water science experiment is so versatile! My son enjoyed explaining what each one looked like. This one was just an ocean, an island, or an island surrounded by an ocean.
Free Printable Earth Day STEAM Guides!
Easy Water Science Experiment
Supplies:
- Water
- Cotton Pads
- Food Coloring
- Tray
- Small Containers
- Eyedropper or Pipette
Instructions:
STEP 1. Place the dry cotton pads in a tray to contain the mess.
STEP 2. Mix up your colors by adding a few drops of food coloring to a small bowl of water. One bowl for each color you want to make. We used green for land and blue for the ocean.
STEP 3. Use an eye dropper to add colored water to the cotton pads. Can you make mini Earths?
He experimented with mixing the colors. he tested just how much the cotton pads would hold by counting drops. Often, kids will make up their own ways to experiment by observing the way things work. This exploring leads to natural problem-solving!
- Sit back and enjoy your child’s natural curiosity!
- Try not to make them do it a certain way!
- Let them explore and discover!
- Ask questions to help get them thinking!
Here’s our completed tray for our Earth Day water science play. We have oceans, land masses and mixes. There is absolutely no wrong way for this simple Earth day activity to turn out!
Why Do Cotton Pads Absorb Water?
Did you notice how the cotton pads soaked up the colored water? This is called absorption. Absorption is the process by which one substance takes in or soaks up another substance. In simpler terms, it’s like when a sponge takes in water.
Cotton pads absorb water because of their structure, and the material they are made of. Cotton is made up of tiny fibers that have small spaces between them. When water comes into contact with these fibers, it is drawn into these spaces through a process called capillary action. This is similar to how a sponge soaks up water.
The water molecules are attracted to the cotton fibers and are able to move between them, allowing the cotton pad to absorb and hold onto the water. This makes cotton pads very effective for tasks like cleaning or applying skincare products, as they can absorb and hold liquids well.
More Fun Earth Day Activities For Kids
Check out more Earth Day preschool activities, including…
Printable Earth Day STEM Activities Pack
Celebrate Earth Day with STEM! 220+ Pages of Earth Day science activities and STEM projects for kids that are easy to set up and fit into your available time, even if it’s limited!
STEAM Mini Pack added three hands-on activities for acid rain, stormwater runoff, and carbon footprints!
- Printable Earth Day theme STEM activities that are simple but engaging for home or classroom. Perfect for K-3/4 and beyond but easily adaptable to many skill levels.
- Dive into simple background science explanations to share with kids while they explore hands-on and playful experiments, projects, and activities such as cleaning up oil spills, exploring water filters, and more!
- Engaging Earth Day Engineers pack with theme activities, journal pages, and design process steps! Learn about the design process and think like an engineer while you design and build a better recycling can and more!
- Easy to gather supplies makes these STEM activities ideal when you have limited resources available. Specialty activities include growing a grass head, making an insect hotel, DIY birdseed ornaments, and more!
- Additional STEM activities also Include a recycle sort, brick building ideas, puzzles, and screen-free coding activities.
- Earth Day Bingo Activity Pack is included as well.
