Opening flower experiment

This week, we had a bit of a science "splurge". Science, as planned, on Monday and then, Miss Belle wanted to do three projects in one afternoon from her Big book of science things to make and do. I've written about this before but this is a great book for introducing science to younger children. We've done most of the activities in the book so two of these were repeats but the floating flower activity was new to us.

This is really about what happens as paper absorbs water.

We made folded paper flowers out of cheap absorbent paper and then floated them in a bowl of water.

As the paper absorbed water, they unfolded, a bit

then completely.
The children were impressed with this so we made another with a frog inside.

This worked well and was quick and easy. A great demonstration of what happens to paper fibres when they absorb water.