★ Label four sheets of paper towels: “2 hours,” “4 hours,” “6 hours,” Icky Sticky Stuff

and “8 hours.” (You may want to put newspapers under the towels.) Grades 2–3
Every two hours, have him remove one of the stalks and put it on Adhesives are used to stick things together. Many adhesives occur in nature
the correct towel. and have important uses for plants and animals.
★ Each time he removes a stalk from the water, help him to carefully
peel the rounded part with a vegetable peeler to see how far up the What You Need
stalk the purple water has traveled. ★ Flour
★ Help your child to measure the distance the purple water has ★ Measuring cup
traveled for each stalk and record the information in his science ★ Egg white <!>
journal. Talk with him about what he has observed. ★ Food coloring
★ Work with your child to make a list of other objects around the house ★ 4 small bowls

or in nature that illustrate capillary action. Have him look for paper ★ 4 plastic spoons
towels, sponges, old sweat socks, brown paper bags and flowers. ★ Aluminum foil
★ Cotton balls
★ Toothpicks
★ Small pieces of cloth
Capillary action happens when water molecules are more ★ Glitter

attracted to the surface they travel along than to each other. In ★ Safety scissors
★ Colored yarn or ribbon
paper towels, the molecules move along tiny fibers. In plants, they
★ Colored paper
move through narrow tubes that are actually called capillaries.
Plants couldn’t survive without capillaries because they use the What to Do
water to make their food. ★ Help your child to make a poster or collage using adhesives by
doing the following:
—Make three bowls of flour-and-water paste. In each bowl, add
1/4 cup water to 1/2 cup flour and mix until smooth. Add a
different-colored food coloring to each of the three bowls and mix.
Use the pastes to make colored shapes on a poster board
or heavy paper.

24 Helping Your Child Learn Science Helping Your Child Learn Science 25