Crystal Hearts ~ Valentine's Day Science

The children at our little yellow school are so excited about Valentine's Day!  What better way to enhance our celebration than with a fun and easy Valentine themed science experiment!  Here is our crystal heart adventure.

We began by gathering our supplies - construction paper hearts, a cookie sheet, salt, measuring spoons, a measuring cup and hot water.

Ready to Go

We filled the measuring cup with very hot water.  The children took turns mixing salt into the water to make a solution.  

   

 

  

  

   

When the water could no longer hold anymore salt, our solution was ready.  We poured just enough of our solution to cover the construction paper hearts.  Here is what happened.

24 Hours - Crystals are forming yet there is still a lot of water.

48 Hours -  Most of the water has evaporated and crystals have formed.  The hearts are still very wet.

72 hours -   Our construction paper hearts are dry and coated in large and small crystals.  They now have a pink tinge.

The children were fascinated by the results!  They each took home a heart to show their families.

How did this happen?  This experiment is all about chemistry.  In the simplest terms, chemistry is about the changes that occur when substances are mixed together.  In this experiment, salt and water were mixed together to form a solution.  As the water evaporated, the sodium and chlorine atoms found in the salt were no longer separated by water.  They began to bond together to form crystals.

We all enjoyed this amazing chemistry experiment!  Thank you to www.littlebinsforlittlehands.com.

The Children's Montessori Academy