Bright and colorful jelly bean science

Your students will love this multi-sensory science experiment!

After introducing the letter Jj this week, we reinforced our new letter’s sound with some j-j-jelly bean science…

For this activity, each child started with their own cup of assorted jelly beans…

Sorting by Color

The children then took their cup of jelly beans and sorted them by colors into our re-purposed fruit tray…

Working Together

The children worked together as a team to get all the jelly beans sorted by color into the trays. It is always super cool to watch the kids concentrating on the process, working together, helping each other, and talking to each other as they go along…

When all of our cups were empty, we were left with a full tray of beautifully sorted jelly beans…

Exploring Taste

Along the way, the children were given the opportunity to pick out a few jelly beans from their own cup to taste which gave this process a multi-sensory experience…

Beginning the Experiment

Once the jelly beans were sorted, each child was invited to choose two or three of one color of jelly bean (from the center tray) to put back into their cups…

Then the children used the pitchers to add water to their of the cups.  And then they stirred the jelly beans around in the water…

Making Predictions

As the children stirred their jelly beans around the water, we asked the question, “What do you think will happen if we leave our jelly beans in the water?”

The children suggested that the water might change color, but after a minute or two of stirring, our jelly beans looked the same and for the most part, so did our water except it did have kind of a film starting to show up…

Making Observations

The children continued to stir and some of the children were beginning to see a slight change in the color of water but we decided to set our cups up on a shelf while we went outside to play and then come back and observe them later…

As soon as we came back inside the classroom, the children immediately went over to check on their jelly bean cups.  And you know what?  The water did change color and the jelly beans were beginning to turn white…

We left the jelly beans in our water overnight and by the next day, the beans were completely white and the water went from clear to a new color. We wondered what would happen to the jelly bean if we left it in the water all week. By the way, some of the children added more than one color of jelly bean to their water so in this case, the water turned to kind of a green color as the candy coated colors dissolved and blended together…

Why we Love Jelly Bean Science

Needless to say, this jelly bean science experiment was loads of fun with lots of opportunities to ask “what if” questions.  It was also a great experiment for using all of our senses along the way…

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Deborah J Stewart

Deborah J Stewart

Every time I think I know everything I need to know about teaching young children, God says, "Hold on a minute!" and gives me a new challenge.

Let me tell ya...

With each new challenge that you overcome, you will find yourself better equipped and more passionate about teaching young children.

God didn't call wimps to lead, teach, or care for His children. Nope, he has high expectations, so get ready. You will have to give your very best but after teaching for over 30 years, I can tell you that it is a wonderful and rewarding journey.

Whenever your calling feels hard, just remember, 'He who began a good work in you (and in the children you serve) will be faithful to complete it.'

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