Making Natural Color from Cabbage

(Activities)

All these time we always use food coloring to color her water to play or flour based paint to make process art. For this week ‘nature’ theme #scienceonsaturdays we introduce natural color to our daughter.

As preparation, she peeled the cabbage for me to cut into small pieces onto a container. She then transferred those small pieces of cabbage along with a few cups of water into the pan. We brought the solution to a boil and then turn off the heat. We let it aside while she was taking her nap to cool down.

While she was taking a nap, I re-used hotel shampoo bottle, gave letters on top of its each cap (V for vinegar, W for water and B for baking soda), filled in each bottle with its designated liquid and prepared a tray with glass jars for cabbage solution and bowls for her to do experiments.

She quickly noticed on those different letters on each cap which she shouted one by one while lifting the bottle up. She realized that there something different inside each of those bottles.

I was surprised at how fast the colors of our cabbage solution changed and how delightfully beautiful the colors were! My two-years-seven-months-old daughter was excited because the solutions turned into lovely colors: red, purple, and blue.

Firstly, she added vinegar onto the cabbage solution. It soon changed color gradually to red as more vinegar added.

Secondly, she added water onto the cabbage solution. No color change was observed except to a lighter tone due to water dillution.

Thirdly, she added baking soda onto the cabbage solution. It soon changed color gradually to blue as more baking soda added.

To observe them further, we transferred the solutions into a glass jar.

Scientific behind the experiment: red cabbage contains a chemical called anthocyanin that changes color depending on the acidity of its environment. In an acidic environment it is reddish-pink, in a neutral environment it is purple, and in a basic (or alkaline) environment it turns bluish-green and even yellow.

#cabbage #naturalcolor #toddler