Growing Crystals

Noli is attending a kids' camp this summer -- it's part of the after school program at her school and they have a special session during the summer. Anyway, when she and my daughter stopped by one afternoon recently, Noli was excited to tell me about an experiment they were doing.

We're growing crystals! she says.

So how do you grow crystals, I ask.

Let's do it! I'll show you how!!  (She's jumping up and down at this point!)

First I got a plastic refrigerator container (I wanted to use something that could be thrown away)

Then Noli put in a bunch of salt (how much salt, Noli?  A bunch, Mumsie!)

Now we put in some food coloring, she says. What color, I ask.  Red and blue so we can make purple! she says.  So we look in the pantry..... only red food coloring there.

OK, I guess we use red! she says. (She is a very "go with the flow" child, thank goodness!)

We add water.... again I ask how much.... and again she says "I don't know..... a bunch!"

We're kinda winging it here.

When she left, I told her I would watch it grow and keep it until she was back. So I nurtured that crystal growing factory just like it was my own, watered it so it didn't get dried out, smiled and said encouraging things to it daily...

.

It grew up the sides.

and looked like little trees

and kept growing until it was lapping over the sides

and little sparkles were in the bottom

She came over on Sunday which was a little over a week later. How are the crystals doing, Mumsie? 

Whoa! They really grew, didn't they!

And look at all the tiny crystals in the bottom! So shiny like little diamonds, she says!

Next time she's here we're going to do the "Sparkly Explosion" -- she doesn't know it yet, but she'll love it!

It's got glitter! 

sharing Noli's Growing Crystals experiment over at Miss Jenny's for Alphabe-Thursday where we are studying the letter G
and on Blue Monday at Smiling Sally's
and on Grand Social at Grandma's Briefs

            

♥♥