Candy is everywhere this week so we wanted to use it for some after school learning! We did another dissolving science experiment, but this time the goal was to dissolve the M off of an M&M.
Have you tried this one before? It is really cool!
M&M Candy Experiment Supplies:
- M&Ms
- Bowl of water
That’s it! Put a couple M&Ms in the water with the M side up and observe what happens.
We talked about how the coating on the M&M was made of colored sugar that dissolves easily in water. It was very interesting to see which colors started to dissolve and spread first.
The M from the orange candy was the first to float up!
Isn’t it cool to see all the Ms floating around? If you touch them they will stick to you finger perfectly intact. The M is made out of more than just sugar so it doesn’t dissolve as quickly. This is a fun science activity to do with kids of all ages so makes a perfect after school activity that the whole family can enjoy!
I shared this activity on the Spooky Candy Science Hangout with Inspiration Laboratories! Check out the other fun ideas shared in her Creepy Crawlies & Candy Science post. I also loved the Candy Activities for Kids series on Learn Play Imagine.
More Candy Activities:
- Exploring Candy from Gift of Curiosity (she did this science activity with her preschoolers but school age kids would like it too!)
- Pop Rocks Candy Apples from B-Inspired Mama
- Candy Corn Math from Mess for Less (this is a great one for Kindergarten, you could add the pumpkins together to extend the learning with school age kids)
- Candy Activities Kids Love from Frog and Snails and Puppy Dog Tails (TONS of fun ideas!)
- Candy Bone Snack from FSPDT
- Gummy Bear Science Experiment from FSPDT
We have to do this classic experiment one of these days, especially with having all the Halloween loot in the house… Thanks for sharing with Afterschool!
It’s better if you use skittles 🙂
We did that too! It is cool!
We just tried this and I don’t know what went wrong but it didn’t do what the picture showed..
Oh no! What happened instead? Were the M&Ms M side up? Here’s a link to a video that shows it if that helps: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P2kIqlxI7K4&feature=share
About how long does it take for the letter to come off?
You should start to see it change fairly quickly. Within minutes most of ours were floating!
Are the M & M better in cold water or warm water?
Good question! Warmer water would dissolve more quickly and it’s pretty fast so I would say cold so you can really see the change. But testing out both would be fun too!
Do you have a worksheet that goes along with this experiment?
No, but I will put it on my list to do!