Hot Cocoa Science
Our countdown to Christmas comes to an end on the 24th day of Advent. I’ve enjoyed sharing Christmas science ideas with you each day. Today’s activity is Hot Cocoa Science.
Hot Cocoa Science
Christmas Eve requires hot cocoa and new pajamas. Today’s activity adds some science into the hot cocoa making and drinking. Practice observation skills, measuring, making predictions, and investigating.
First, we looked at the ingredients in hot cocoa:
- cocoa
- sugar
- water
- milk
- vanilla
We smelled the ingredients and talked about which were solids and which were liquids {reinforcing our discussion from our Christmas Mixtures activity}.
Aiden measured out the ingredients and placed them in the pot. I turned on the heat and stirred. {You may be comfortable helping an older child do this step.}
I had 4 additions for our hot cocoa: mini marshmallows, mini M&Ms, mini candy canes and orange slices. What would happen if we added these things to our hot cocoa? Would they sink or float? Would they dissolve, melt, or stay the same?
We conducted our hot cocoa investigation and enjoyed our results. I’ll let you and your children discover what happens for this one.
The candies that float are less dense than the hot cocoa. The candies that sink are more dense. {Learn more about density here.} Some of the candies melted from the heat of the hot cocoa. Some of the candies dissolved in the liquid. {See our candy cane science experiment for more info.}
We hope you have a Merry Christmas!
More Christmas Activities for Kids
- Catch all of our Christmas Science Advent Calendar ideas.
- Explore pine needles and Christmas trees and take our Christmas science challenge.
- Turn your child’s art into a great Christmas project with these 15 Christmas ideas with children’s art.
- Check out all of our Christmas ideas.
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