DIY LAVA LAMP FOR THE BOYS

Last week, the boys and I did another easy experiment on “separating liquids”. It was a make your own lava lamp activity. We already did a water-and-oil experiment previously so it was good introduction for this lesson. All we needed were:

1. a clear plastic bottle

2. water

3. oil

4. food coloring (but we used dye instead)

We first filled the bottle with water. We left 1/6 free for the oil. We put in a bit of the dye to color the water then we shook the bottle to mix it. We then poured some used oil (no use wasting good oil!) into the bottle and voila! Instant lava lamp. Now, this homemade version is a far cry from the real lava lamp but it’s still a fun activity. If you want the oil to go up more slowly, you might have to use a more viscous solution to substitute water. But even if the oil jumped to the top of the bottle so fast, the boys still enjoyed the activity. Nikki just twisted and turned the bottle for ages. There was a time when some of the oil was stuck to the top and bottom sides of the bottle and Nikki loved looking at the blobs of oil float to the top. Anyway, it was another fun activity but in addition to that, we recycled! So, mission accomplished!