Ask Ollie
Dropper Color Mixing Magic
Here's one to try together!
Drip, drip, splash! Watch three colors spread and surprise you on a paper filter.
Reviewed by our team.
Safety first
- food coloring stains skin, clothes and surfaces, so wear old clothes
- straw used as a dropper must not be sucked on, as the colored water should stay out of mouths
What you need
- Paper, 3 coffee filters or paper towels
- Food coloring, a few drops per cup
- Clear cups, 3
- Water, about half a cup per cup
- Plate or tray, 1 tray
- Dropper, 1 per child
- Newspaper, a few sheets, or a plastic cloth
- Painter's tape, a few strips
How to do it
Grown-up prep: Cover the table, put kids in old clothes, and set out the cups, tray and filters before you begin.
- Drop red coloring into one cup of water.
- Make the yellow and blue cups the same way.
- Lay a coffee filter flat on the tray.
- Fill your dropper with red water. Ask: What do you think will happen when the red water touches the paper?
- Drip red onto the filter, one drop at a time.
- Add yellow right next to the red. Ask: What new color do you see where red meets yellow?
- Squeeze slowly, then quickly. What changes?
- Add blue, then make two more filters.
- Let the filters dry, then hang them in a window.
- Now show your friends, or make more! Which color mix was your favorite? Ask: Which new color surprised you most, and what would you like to mix next?
Play it again
- Rainbow stripes: drip colors in a line to make a rainbow band across a filter.
- Mystery mix: close your eyes while a grown-up places two colors, then guess the new color.
- Butterfly wings: pinch a dried filter in the middle to make wings and hang it up.
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