Colorful Water Letters Activity * ages 3+ ⋆ Raising Dragons

Colorful Water Letters Activity is fun, process art technique combines water, color mixing and letter formation for a beautiful and mesmerizing activity! It’s perfect for working on letter recognition, letter formation, color mixing and fine motor skills! It’s also a great lesson on cohesion and adhesion as important properties of water. I should also mention that it’s incredibly fun and addicting for adults to do too! I could not stop drawing shapes and filling them in and watching the colors swirl!

VIDEO OF COLORFUL WATER LETTERS

Before starting, check out this video of the activity in action:

MATERIALS NEEDED: (affiliate links)

WHAT TO DO:

Start by mixing a few drops of food coloring with some water to make liquid water colors.
Next take a paintbrush sipped in plain water and draw the shape of a letter on the paper plate.
Now use the pipette to add colored water to the letter you drew on the paper plate.
Notice how the color stays within the water already on the paper
Add multiple colors to the letter to allow the colors to mix and change.
Lift the plate and move it up and down a small amount. Watch how the water moves around the letter but stays within the lines. So cool!

THE HOWS AND WHYS – COHESION & ADHESION

So why does the colored water only go along the path the clear water creates? Water is made up of one oxygen atom and two hydrogen atoms (aka H2O). These atoms have positive and negative charges with causes them to stick together. Water displays properties of both cohesion and adhesion. Cohesion causes the water molecules to stick to itself and adhesion causes the molecules to stick to other objects. When clear water is painted on the plate, adhesion causes the water to stick to the plate. When colored water is added to the water on the plate, cohesion causes the water to stick to itself so stays on the wet part of the plate and doesn’t venture onto the dry part. You will also notice the colored water domes a bit. This is due to surface tension and cohesion because the water molecules are trying to stick together. Try filling a glass of water all the way to the top. Once it’s full use a dropper to add more water. Instead of overflowing, the droplets will cause the water to appear to come over the top of the glass. This is also cohesion and surface tension at work! Amazing, right?