Color Changing Rose Experiment: A Little Blue and Little Yellow Activity

It’s week three of the Preschool Book Club Series and this week we are exploring Little Blue and Little Yellow by Leo Lionni. The simple tale of two friends, little blue and little yellow, encompasses so many learning opportunities regarding friendship, emotions, family relations and of course color recognition and color mixing. This week we will be combining our reading of Little Blue and Little Yellow with a Color Changing Rose Experiment to make our very own “Little Blue and Little Yellow” rose.

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WHAT YOU NEED FOR THE COLOR CHANGING ROSE EXPERIMENT

white roses (have a few extra just in case) you could also use carnations
2 cups, small vases or mason jars per 1 rose
yellow and blue food coloring or liquid watercolors
water
clear packing tape
knife or scissors
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AREAS OF DEVELOPMENT ENHANCED BY COLOR CHANGING ROSE EXPERIMENT

literacy development
color recognition
color mixing
scientific exploration (forming hypothesis, observing changes, parts of a plant)

HOW TO CREATE THE COLOR CHANGING ROSE EXPERIMENT

Begin by adding a couple of inches of water to 2 mason jars or cups (this will be for 1 rose). Add a good deal of blue and yellow food coloring to the water, 1 color per jar. The blue water should be a very dark blue and the yellow will look orange.

Next using a sharp knife or scissor split the stem of the rose from the bottom to the top leaving the top inch of the flower step alone. This step is definitely an adult job. As children observe you name the different parts of the flower you are working with.

Handle the rose stem with care. It will be very fragile once split open and can break easily. Trust me, we went through a few roses before I realized how carefully we had to treat them!

Carefully position one part of the stem in the yellow water and one part of the stem in the blue water. Secure each part of the stem to the inside of the jar using clear packing tape. This will help keep the stems from breaking.

Place the flower in a spot where children can observe, but out of the line of traffic. We picked our windowsill. My children loved going up to the rose and making observations.

We talked about how when a flower drinks water the water goes up from the bottom of the stem and travels to the top. What do you think will happen to the rose if we use blue and yellow water? Using their knowledge of color mixing my children were certain the flower would turn green. Time for my little scientists to observe their experiment and see if their hypotheses was correct.

After an hour we started to see the smallest amounts of blue traveling up half of the petals and the slightest hint of yellow on the other side. We went to bed eager to observe our rose in the morning.

“MAMA, LOOK!” This was my startled good morning the next day that had be racing to the room as my daughter screamed at the top of her lungs. Preparing myself for some horrid sight I was pleasantly surprised to see that my daughter’s exclamation was pure excitement coming from a little scientist full of joy! It’s blue and yellow!

Admittedly I was just as excited as they were! We talked about how different parts of the stem are responsible for different rose petals. The part of the stem that was drinking the blue water was responsible for the blue petals and the part of the stem drinking the yellow water was taking care of the yellow flowers. We kept our flower out for about 4 days before it started to wilt. We will definitely be exploring more ways to combine literacy with scientific exploration after this successful activity!