Eye droppers are fabulous tools for kids. They work the small muscles in their hands, which they need to develop for writing, plus you can do so many fun things with them!
My ten year old helped me set up a surprise for her little brother and together we created this fun eye dropper activity tray.
My big girl remembered doing three super fun eye dropper activities when she was smaller, so we decided to use our big cutlery tray to set up all three activities in one!
We got out our big plastic cutlery tray (we got ours from Ikea and it has been fab for all kinds of sensory play and art) and we added the following materials:
- a container of vinegar
- four containers of food colouring mixed with a little water
- an eye dropper for each container
- paper serviettes/napkins (you could use any very absorbent paper)
- some bicarb soda
- a small plastic tray with sections (you could use an ice cube tray)
Noah’s eyes just about popped out of his head when he saw the tray full of things to explore and experiment with. He started with something simple… dropping coloured water into the sectioned container.
It didn’t take him long to get the hang of the eye droppers and to discover that you could mix the colours together to make new colours!
Then he moved on to making a bit of art with his newly mixed colours.
Dropper painting is a great activity to do all on it’s own, but it’s even more fun when you get to mix your own colours first. Watching the way the colour moves as the paper sucks up all the moisture is just magic.
The cutlery tray is a perfect container for dropper painting as it catches any wayward drips, just be sure to have lots of space to let these creations dry as there are sure to be lots of them and they take a while to dry.
“But why has this one got no colour” Noah asked his sister once he was done making dropper paintings.
“Because it has magic in it!” Zoe told him.
She showed him how to mix a little of the ‘magic water’ aka vinegar with some coloured water and then dripped a few drops onto the bicarb. Instant frothing bubbles!
Soon Noah was busy mixing vinegar and colours and making his own bubbly bicarb explosions.
The simple items and ingredients in our eye dropper activity tray really capture the imagination and lead to so much exploring and experimenting.
Noah and Zoe had a lovely time mixing colours, making dropper paintings, and creating bubbling poison and lava together.
It was lovely to see my big girl (who is almost 11) enjoying this activity as much as her brother and sharing her knowledge and memories of the things she did and learned when she was his age.
Have you ever played with eye droppers?
I purchased some of these eye droppers a little while ago but still haven’t used them! Thanks for the great ideas and all in the one set up. Like you say, great fun for all ages. :)
Where do you find the eye droppers?
Are you in Australia?
We got ours at Riot Art and Craft, but these ones from Learning $ Kids look great and they deliver Australia wide (and are a blogging friend!)
http://www.learning4kids.net/product/eye-droppers-pack-6/
Thank you so much for this!
I have been looking for a new activity to help my 7 yr old with his hand muscles and fine motor skills.
He is a little behind and needs to strengthen his hand.
I’m sure he will love to teach his younger brother how to make pictures.
Off to the learning4kids site.
Thanks again
I’ve been looking for a fun craft activity that will engage the science minded 7 year old whilst also look fun to the 18month old. Looks like I just found it. Thanks for sharing!
we did an activity last year in prek using coffee filters and green and blue water, to make the earth they turned out so good and made earth day a blast
We get our eye droppers from Discount School School Supply
I LOVE your blog – your printables and activities are awesome! Thanks so much for sharing them with the rest of us.