Winter Magic Milk Experiment
Got milk? Then you have everything you need to do this fun activity in your kitchen right now. It’s fun winter themed activity for the holidays, grab your milk and create this winter magic milk experiment.
Want even more winter ideas? See this list of cool winter activities for kids.
It’s fun to watch the effect of the soap on the food coloring to watch it disperse and mix together. The kids always have a blast with this fun magic milk experiment and its one that we make over and over again.
My kids never get tired of these reactions. And I love that! It means that they’re going to want to do them again and this means that I get to be a part of it, too!
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Winter Magic Milk Experiment
We love simple science experiments that we can easily put together with no fuss. This is the perfect way to have something fun for the the kids to do that combines learning as well.
This winter themed snowflake magic milk experiment is a fun spin on the regular magic milk experiment. I’m always looking for ways to change things up and make it seasonal and this is perfect.
Milk is made up of fats that you can’t really see although it does look like one uniform liquid.
It contains water, fats and proteins.
Related: Simple Homeschool Science Experiments
When you add your food coloring it looks as though it just sits on top of the milk.
For this winter themed experiment we chose to only use the purple and blue color. We wanted darker colors that make it feel like winter.
Once you dip your cotton swab into the milk, you’ll see the food coloring beginning to disperse and mix together which is the fun part to watch.
As you hold the cotton swab in the milk you see the colors start to swirl, you can then dip the other end into the soap to keep doing it again. It’s really such a cool process to see!
How does the magic milk experiment work?
Want the magic milk experiment explanation? First, ask the kids what they think about the process and then go from there. Once they give their hypothesis, you can then talk about the actual experiment after that.
Notice when the food coloring is added to the dish is just sits on top. It does not mix with the milk initially. Remember that milk is made up of minerals, fats and proteins.
Once the cotton swab is added to the soap, it is dipped into the milk and the colors begin to swirl and mix together.
The soap breaks the surface tension of the milk as the fat molecules interact with the dish soap and begin to move around and swirl.
The soap seeks out the fatty molecules and as the move and interact the food coloring allows you to see this and how it moves it process a fun color reaction to watch.
As the reaction stops, you’ll the colors stop swirling, you can grab another cotton swab dipped in soap to keep start the reaction again in another part of the dish.
What milk is best for the magic milk experiment?
The best milk for this experiment has more fat, I used 2% milk but whole milk would be even better since it has more fat. You want to be sure that whatever milk you use it does have fat content in it as this is key to the experiment.
My daughter was moving the plate and then the colors inside the snowflake dispersed outside of the cookie cutter which made it look even prettier.
As usual my daughter enjoyed adding more food coloring and soap to see what happened.
Then you end up with a heaping mess that the kids enjoyed creating which is always fun to watch.
She said she was creating a magic potion. I loved that she was creating and using her imagination at the same time. I felt as though she was really thinking that she was making magic and that is the cutest thing ever!
All you need to add to the supplies list is a snowflake cookie cutter. To change up the regular magic milk experiment to a winter themed one.
You have everything you need in your kitchen right now to do this. Below is an example of some things that you need or should think about getting for the experiment. Of course, you can always make any experiment work with what you have but these are fun to add in as well!
Tmflexe Snowflake Cookie Cutter, Pack of 5LILIAO Christmas Winter Snowflake Cookie Cutter – 3.3 x 3.7 inches – Stainless Steel
Don’t have a snowflake cookie cutter? Use a gingerbread man or Christmas tree to change up the theme of the experiment and the colors to match.
This is a super simple way to change up this experiment in a way that it’s new and unique. The more shapes that you can use for this experiment, the better. The kids will have a blast and will be looking for new shapes to use for this experiment.
Simple Magic Milk Science Experiment
Materials
- 1 1/2 cups of milk
- Liquid food coloring
- Dish soap
- Cotton swabs
- Dinner plate or shallow dish
- Small container
Instructions
- Pour about one tablespoon of dish soap into a small container.
- Pour milk onto a plate. (It’s ok if you see bubbles.)
- Drip a few drops of food coloring of choice in the center of the milk. You can get creative with where you drop the drops and space them out how you wish. (Note: Food coloring may spread out slightly as pictured.)
- Dip a cotton swab into the dish soap.
- Place the cotton swab in the middle of the colors and watch what happens! You should see the colors start to spread out towards the sides of the plate and change over time. You can repeat this step a few times.
- Tip: Kids can take their cotton swab and “draw” or “swirl” in the colors. Eventually the colors will mix together until the milk becomes one color.
- If you allow the milk to sit a while before all colors are mixed completely together, you can see the milk change in neat ways as pictured here.
- Watch over time how different things look!
- When complete, dispose of milk in the sink.
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Don’t forget that you can also make this during other times of the year, too. Change up the coloring that you use and the shapes and this can easily be a year round activity.
You can add some STEM activities to your homeschool curriculum this winter. These winter STEM activities will be perfect.
See more Holiday Homeschool Activities here.
More Holiday Homeschool Activities
Don’t miss out on these other great activities, too. The more that you can introduce fun learning activities to the kids, the more that they’re going to want to dive in and do fun learning! These are a great way to combine learning and fun and will have the kids wanting to explore even more.
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If you want your child to have a great winter learning experience, try these super easy but fun winter activities for kindergarten.
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How to Make Frost in a Jar by STEAMsational
With only a few supplies you can make your own frost.