The Daily Hailey

Cher here! 🙋‍♀️

Science Saturday is something that Hailey and I came up with to do with Dekker and Laela on – you guessed it – Saturdays! We both had seen some interesting science experiments that caught our eye in passing, but for me in particular, I remember a specific experiment from my childhood that I always thought was interesting and cool.

We decided that it would be fun to try some experiments with the kids to switch things up a bit, and since I am here a lot (thanks guys for your hospitality) it seemed like a win for everyone! Hailey came up with “Science Saturday” and we hope to continue it for the duration of the school year.

Now that you’re caught up on some background, I’m going to get right into it!

The first experiment we did today came in two parts: The pepper/soap experiment, and the glitter/soap experiment (I am just calling it what I want, I’m unsure of their sophisticated titles). Both experiments taught the kids how soap works to get rid of germs and bacteria. It seemed fitting since we are in a pandemic right now and kids are always being told to wash their hands. This way they can see for themselves the magic of hand soap!

Part 1: Pepper and Soap
We got the kids to fill their own soup bowl half full of water. Next, we instructed them to scatter pepper from the shaker into the bowl and cover the whole surface of water in a thin layer. Then, we told them to pretend the pepper was germs. We took their index finger and poked the middle of the pepper water and asked them if anything happened. Nothing happened at all, so we dried their fingers off and put soap on the end of the same finger and told them to do it again. Immediately following their soap-covered finger hitting the surface of the pepper water, the pepper scattered to the edge of the bowl, leaving the middle of the bowl with clear water. It seemed like a miracle to watch the pepper (germs) run away from the soap on the surface of the water.

Part 2: Glitter and Soap
The next part of the experiment was to demonstrate how using only water to wash your hands doesn’t do as good of a job as it does when you use soap. First, we got the kids to choose what colour glitter they wanted. Then, we sprinkled it on both sides of both hands and got them to try and wash it off with water only. Some glitter fell off, but some stayed on like it was stuck to their skin, just like germs do! Last, we added soap to their hands and Hailey and Brady showed the kids all the places to scrub their fingers and finger tips, palms, and even wrists, in order to get all the areas that often get forgotten. They rinsed with water and 100% of the glitter was gone! It was a very cute experiment.

The last thing we did was give them a colouring page that said “Wash Your Hands” and a few cute germ cartoons surrounding it to colour.

Hailey suggested that they put them in each kids bathroom as a reminder of the experiments we did and a good general reminder for anyone who uses the bathroom.

Hailey and I wanted to colour too, so we coloured our own pages that were summer themed, and then we teamed up and did a third hand washing sign while we waited for everyone to finish.

It was a cute afternoon.

Overall, I think it went really well! At first they had no idea science could be fun or as inclusive, I don’t think. It was a fun way to teach kids about washing hands and the importance of using soap. Burning things into their brains like this will help keep them in the know. If they understand the how, then they will understand the why.


This is Cher, signing off.

I feel famous. Who wants my autograph?