Fun with Color Mixing and Water Transfer

Last week, I did a biology lab day with a couple of high school girls from church. We borrowed a microscope and did the usual cheek cell lab as well as some other experiments from Apologia Biology. I ordered a package of transfer pipettes to use in preparing our slides, and since we had so many I thought that the boys might enjoy using them too.

I set up some “science” for the younger boys by filling five baby food jars with water and a couple drops of food coloring in each one. Then, I showed them how to work the water transfer pipette. At age 6, Gresham had no trouble. Figuring out when to squeeze the pipette to fill it with water was a little tricky for Owen (age 3), but once he figured it out, he was happily busy for the next 20 minutes!

The first spill stained the counter top a little, so I added a cookie sheet to contain the mess:

Owen decided that he wanted an empty container to fill up with water, so I gave him a bowl.

The boys enjoyed transferring the water from one jar to another and watching the colors change. (All the jars ended up a muddy green/black color by the end!)

This ended up being a great activity for fine motor coordination. It was also good for the boys to observe how much water from the jars it took to fill up the glass bowl, which was a similar height but wider.

These are the transfer pipettes that I ordered from Amazon (affiliate link). At $6.99 for 100 they were pretty inexpensive. I had thought that 100 was the smallest package, but tonight when I was looking for the link I found a pack of 20 by another brand for $3.99. I should have ordered those!

For another way to keep those preschool hands busy, check out our alphabet lift-the-flap activity!