Leprechauns Strike – Green Water At-Home Experiment
St. Patrick’s Day Science Experiments
Leprechauns Strike
What is a leprechaun’s favorite color? Green, of course. Green water pouring from the tap is a sure sign your home was visited by leprechauns on St. Patrick’s Day.
You don’t need a lab to get kids to wonder, discover and explore. Sometimes all it takes is a little creativity and a knack for having fun with science. What would young kids think if the water from a tap briefly came out green? Those pesky leprechauns must be at it again. Make this St. Patrick’s Day a little more fun for the kids by letting Steve Spangler help you pull off the Green Water prank at your home. You can see how this prank worked out in the Spangler household, too.
Check out the Leprechaun Strike at the Spangler House
To make the color green – you can mix BLUE and YELLOW tablets from this Color Fizzing Tablets kit.
Experiment Materials
- Color Fizzing Tablets
- Paper towels or rags
- Leprechaun supervision
Experiment Videos
Experiment
1
Pick a sink that you know your kids will use in the morning, like the bathroom sink. You could also rig every sink in the house to flow green if you have enough time. Some taps are easier to access than others. Usually, the screen diffuser can be easily unscrewed with a little twist from a pair of pliers padded with a rag. The screen is removable so you can clean out clogs and debris that flows through the pipes. In this case, however, you’ll be adding debris to the screen.
2
Once the screen diffuser has been removed, use a rag or a paper towel to thoroughly dry the inside of the tap and the screen. You may have to remove a small part or two from the screen to do this. You can take a photo to make sure you don’t lose the parts and so you can remember how they go back in.
3
Place one blue and one yellow tablet on the unscrewed screen. For some faucets, you may have to push a few tablets into the tap itself. The number of tablets you can fit and where you can fit them will depend on your tap’s design. Screw the screen diffuser back onto the tap.
4
When the water is turned on, the tablets will dissolve and color the water green. It only lasts for a short time before the tablets completely dissolve. The color is also most vivid during the first few seconds, so make sure to have a cup ready to collect a sample. Your kids will be eager to prove that leprechauns really were in your home.
How Does It Work
Steve Spangler Science Color Fizzing Tablets are small coloring tablets specifically designed to color the water for kids at bath time. They fizz to mix the coloring dye with the water more effectively and because it’s cool to watch. The fizz is a result of a chemical reaction that occurs between citric acid and sodium bicarbonate, commonly known as baking soda, in water, releasing carbon dioxide. If you want to do this prank at home, we recommend using Fizzy Tints because they won’t stain your sink or tap. Easter egg dye tablets and food coloring will definitely leave stains on things, so they’re best to avoid.
Take It Further
You can have even more fun with leprechauns on St. Patrick’s Day and leave more evidence of their visit around your home. Blobs of green slime oozing on the table could be leprechaun tracks, a leprechaun sneeze or leprechaun mud. You might sprinkle gold glitter on countertops, strategically place gold and green coins around the house or leave a glass of green water next to the sink. Keep it simple and make it fun.
Make St. Patrick’s Day even more fun for the kids by baiting the leprechauns before they visit. You can leave liquid gold to lure a gold-loving leprechaun by combining water and two yellow Color Fizzing Tablets. If you secretly add one blue Fizzing Tablet to the water later, it will turn green. You could explain the color change by saying that a leprechaun visited overnight, thought it was liquid gold and touched the water, turning it green. You could also have the kids build a leprechaun trap that you can spring before they wake up in the morning, like sprinkling flour on the countertop and leaving tiny leprechaun prints for them to discover. These are just a few ideas, but they should provide some inspiration on how to prove a leprechaun visited.
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