Painting Sugar Cubes

This fine motor painting activity involved color mixing, absorption, solid dissolution, building construction, and the light table!

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My husband found a box of sugar cubes in our coffee cabinet (Yes, we have an entire cabinet dedicated to our love for caffeine.) and asked me if I wanted to use them for an activity with our preschooler! Of course I was up for that challenge!

When I showed E the sugar cubes and explained what they were she had so many questions! "Are they sticky? Can we eat them? How do people use them?" We spent some time investigating their properties as we built structures with them (and I did let her taste one).

We diluted liquid water colors (one of our favorite art supplies) and got out eye droppers and training chopsticks to add fine motor work. 

We experimented with color mixing, reviewed rainbow color order, and observed the solid sugar cubes dissolving into a liquid as the water was added.

Once we saw how stunning the colorful sugar cubes turned out and how addicting they are to paint we had to try them on the light table!

Before the sugar cubes were colored they were dark on the table but the watercolors made them transparent as the sugar absorbed the liquid. The effect made the cubes glow the instant she dropped the color on them! It was mesmerizing!

Of course we had to add a bit of literacy! Rainbows, literacy, and the light table are our favorite things!

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