Erupting Art for Kids

Art Eruptions - Candy Activities for Kids

I have been having so much fun this week with our Candy Activities for Kids series.  I've enjoyed getting to know some fellow bloggers a bit better, and I've been have a blast playing with candy!  We have made homemade finger paint from Starburst candy, Hershey Kiss chocolate playdough, and introduced skip counting with M&M's.  The theme for today is art with candy.  My oldest, JZ (6), has been interested in big art lately and not as much in sitting down and painting.  With candy as the theme I wanted to see if we could make erupting art using the old Mentos and soda trick.

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Supplies:

• clear soda (I used Sprite)
• Mentos
• tempura paint
• watercolor paper

How to Make Erupting Art with Candy

Directions:  When making geysers with Mentos and soda you want to use a two liter bottle of soda.  I wasn't aiming for geysers but rather small eruptions, so I bought 12 oz. bottles of Sprite.  I think any clear soda will work.  A money saving tip:  I only bought one pack of the 12 oz. bottles and bought 2 liter bottles to refill the smaller bottles when we wanted to do the experiment again since the 2 liter bottles are much cheaper.

I poured out some of the Sprite from each bottles.  I did a few test runs first, and with a full bottle of soda the eruptions were a bit too big for what I was going for.  Somewhere between 1/2 and 3/4 of the bottle seemed to work best.  Next I carefully squirted in some tempura paint.  I didn't measure, but I'm guessing about one tablespoon of each color.  Squirt slowly and carefully to avoid making the soda fizz and overflow before you are ready.  I tried this with liquid watercolors as well, and I was surprised to find that they did not work at all.  I had the best luck with regular tempura paint.

I set out four colors at a time and put the soda bottle directly on top of the paper.  I used watercolor paper.  Any thick paper should work.  This is a very wet art project, so stay away from thin paper.

One at a time, JZ and J-Bug (4) put Mentos in the Sprite bottles.  Sometimes we used one, and other time we used two Mentos.  It didn't seem to make a difference.  What matters is the amount of soda.   I love how JZ is holding his ears in the above photo.  I think he was expecting a giant eruption!  

Then we stepped back and watched as the art eruptions began.

This erupting art was so cool and really so simple!  The results were gorgeous.

We also layered the colors by using one color at a time on the same piece of paper.  The results were gorgeous.  I hung our paintings to dry.

For more ideas follow my Art for Kids board on Pinterest.

Be sure and check out the other art with candy posts from the series:

Candy Pumpkin from Blog me Mom

Starburst Candy Sculptures from Housing a Forest

Candy Jewelry from Mama.Papa.Bubba.

Starburst Candy Mosaic from Mama Miss

Candy Headbands from Meri Cherry

Come back tomorrow to see our science with candy.