Recommended Age: 4 years and onwards
Level of Parent Involvement: Medium during the initial set up then low once the child monitors the celery experiment and writes/draws her own observations
Prerequisites
- The child must be able to carry out a task with a sequence of steps in
- The child must have an interest in science experiments
Materials
- One celery stick with the leaves still on
- Food colour
- Clear glass of water
- 5-8 pieces of A5 paper
- Stapler
Preparation
- Set up the materials on a tray
Steps
- Invite the child letting them know that they are going to do a science experiment
- Show the child the tray with the glass, food colour and celery stick
- Invite the child to fill the glass with water (2 thirds full)
- The child may place the celery stick in the glass
- Let the child know that you will be putting in a few drips of food colouring, the child may choose the colour
- Once the food colouring is in explain to the child that the colouring is going to travel through the capillaries of the celery plant and over the next few days you are going to observe the changes
- Invite the child to make a book, indicating where they can find the paper and stapler (help the child staple the papers together if necessary)
- If the child can write, they may write on the front cover ‘celery experiment’
- Invite the child to draw or write what they see with the caption day 1
- The child may monitor the celery for a few days and record the changes
Variations
- An older child can write a sentence about her observation of the experiment
- Have the child experiment with different food colours
