Floating Dry Erase Shamrocks
If your child enjoys science, they’ll love this easy floating shamrock experiment! This fun activity only requires a few simple supplies, and it is a great way to celebrate Saint Patrick’s Day at home.
Servings: 1 dish
Ingredients
- 1 green dry erase marker (not dried out)
- 1 metal spoon
- 1 shallow dish
- water as needed
- small paper squares optional, as needed
Instructions
- Use a green dry erase marker to draw a shamrock on the back of a spoon. (If you’re having trouble getting the shape right, try drawing three small hearts that are joined at the tip, then coloring them in and adding a stem.)
- Let the ink dry for about 15 to 30 seconds, then gently lower your spoon into a shallow dish filled with about an inch of water, holding the spoon at an angle so that only one side of the shamrock is touching the water. If the shamrock starts to peel off, gently rotate your spoon to help it along, continuing until it has completely peeled off. Once it has fully peeled off, quickly remove the spoon to prevent it from latching back on. (If the shamrock doesn’t peel off, try inserting the spoon at a different angle—or, if it still won’t peel off, erase the shamrock, dry off the spoon and try again with a slightly different drying time.)
- Repeat the previous steps as many times as you wish in order to create more floating shamrocks.
- Optional: Have fun “catching” the shamrocks by pressing a small piece of paper on top of them as they float—shamrocks that come into contact with the paper will stick to it.
Video
Notes
1. Ideal drying time: Different markers may require slightly different drying times. Start with 15 seconds, then increase the time as needed if the shamrocks aren’t peeling off the spoon.
2. Customizing this experiment for different holidays: Try changing up the design by drawing hearts, snowflakes or spiders.
3. Troubleshooting:
- Shamrocks won’t peel off: Try wiping off the shamrock, thoroughly drying the spoon and starting over with a shorter or longer drying time—or, if that doesn’t work, using a marker that is less dried out.
- Shamrocks breaking apart: Make sure that the lines of the shamrock are fully touching, that the shapes are fully colored in, and that you don’t go over the same line several times with your marker when drawing. (You can remove broken shamrocks from the dish by pressing a paper on top of them.)
- Shamrocks sticking to themselves: Make sure not to let the shamrock partially peel off, then come back into contact with the ink that remains on the spoon.
- Nothing else working: Try a different brand of markers, or draw the shamrocks on the bottom of an empty glass dish and slowly pour in some water to see if the drawings start to peel off the bottom and float to the top.
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- Avoid dried out markers: Dry marker ink can cause the experiment not to work.
- Tilt and rotate spoon: This will help the shamrocks peel off and prevent the ink from sticking to itself.
- Quickly remove the spoon: Quickly remove the spoon from the water to prevent the shamrocks from latching back on.