As you know, we love Disney! As a homeschool family, we are always looking for fun ways to learn with the kids. We are a little excited about the new Olaf’s Frozen Adventure. This movie short is coming out over Thanksgiving. We thought to get everyone excited, we would create Elsa’s Frozen Snowflakes as a science experiment. It is so easy and a fun science experiment.
Let’s Make Frozen Snowflakes
- Pipe cleaners
- A pencil
- Blue food coloring
- And Water (boiling)
- You will create snowflakes using the pipe cleaners and scissors
- Put your snowflake in the center of the jar and tie the other end of the string to the pencil (think of your pencil and snowflake as a puppet)
- Boil water and pour it carefully in the jar. Then add 3 tablespoons of Borax (per cup of water) into the jar. Stir it up
- Add a few drops of the blue coloring into the jar and stir again
- Hang the snowflake into the jar of blue water and rest the pencil on the top of the jarThe
- Let it sit overnight! The next morning you will have frozen snowflakes
The Science Behind It
When you mix the Borax with the hot water, the water molecules move apart to make room for the Borax solution. When no more of the solution can be dissolved, you have reached the saturation. As this solution cools, the water molecules move closer together. Since there is less room to move, the crystals begin to form on top of each other creating crystalized snowflakes.