Flower Fun

What you need

• flower or celery sticks
• water
• food dye
• jar or empty drink bottle

What to do

Place fresh cut flowers or a stalk of celery, with leaves, in a jar of coloured water. Leave for a few hours.

What they learn

Your child should observe that the colour has moved up the celery or flower stalk through channels (called xylem). They learn that plants need water and they take up water from their roots to their leaves.

Encouragement questions

• Can you see where the coloured water has gone?

Extra activities

1. The celery can be cut in half to show the coloured channels. Use a magnifier glass to look closer at the channels.
2. Ask your child to help you find other objects around the house or in nature that enable liquids to climb by capillary action. Look for paper towels, sponges, old sweat socks and brown paper bags.. What other items can you find?
3. Make a chromatography bookmark. Get some absorbent paper or filter paper and a non-permanent black texta. Draw a big dot at the bottom of the paper. Put the paper (the dot end) in 1 cm of water. Wait and observe what happens. Your child should see the water climbing (through capillary action) up the paper and all the colours separate. Hey presto, you have a rainbow bookmark – just remember to let it dry before you use it!