Rainbow Water Cups

What you need

• five clear plastic cups, three of them half full of water
• food colouring in red, yellow and blue
• a spoon
• a tray

How to do it

1. Line the cups up on the tray: water, empty, water, empty, water. Add a drop of red to the first, yellow to the middle and blue to the last.
2. Ask your child what colour each empty cup will be if they mix in the two colours next to it.
3. Let them spoon some from each side into an empty cup and stir. Did it make the colour they said?
4. Name the new colours together, orange and green, and talk about which one surprised them.

Why it matters

Mixing next-door colours in clear cups makes the change easy to see, and a guess first makes it their experiment.

What they're learning

Colour words

Red, yellow, orange: naming the new colour as it appears.

Guessing and testing

Saying what will happen, then stirring to find out.

Spooning carefully

Carrying a full spoon from one cup to the next.

What to look for

Notice them saying what colour they think it'll be before they stir.

A tip

Food colouring stains, so use a tray and old clothes, and keep the cups for looking, not drinking.

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