Overnight Crystals

With everything that is going on this year, it looks like a lot of kids will be learning at home in the fall. I fully believe in making school fun, so here is a science craft you can try. If you want to teach and understand the science behind this craft, check out this blog: https://www.steamsational.com/borax-crystals-science-project/ . This is a fun craft to do with kids but uses a stove, so definitely needs adult supervision.

I used:

Small glass jars

Pipe cleaners

Borax

Toothpicks

String

Stove

Pot for boiling water

Heat safe measuring cup for easy pouring

To start, I tied a piece of string to the middle of each of my pipe cleaners and left about 2-3 inches off the tail end to tie to my toothpick later. I carefully folded and twisted my pipe cleaners into different shapes. I’ve found that the more tightly compacted, the better the crystals come out. I chose my jars so that a toothpick could lay on top without falling in but they were large enough to fit my pipe cleaner shapes without touching the sides.

Next, I tied the excess string of each pipe cleaner to the middle of a toothpick and set them each in a jar. Make sure your pipe cleaner doesn’t touch the jar itself and it is deep enough to be fully covered by water. Once the jars were set up, I put them aside and went to boil water.

I boiled about 4 cups of water and mixed in my borax. The ratio I used was about 3 tablespoons pf borax per cup of water and stirred until dissolved. If you look at that link above, they go into what different ratios will do. After the borax was dissolved, I used my measuring cup to pour it into each jar fully covering my pipe cleaner shapes. As the borax solution cools, it will create crystals that attach to the pipe cleaners.

My crystals sat over night and this is how they turned out! They are perfect for hanging in windows for a little decoration and are great for learning a small science lesson 😊 As always, if you take any fun pictures of any crafts, tag me on Instagram @SmileMakePeopleWonder and use the hashtag #DandelionSmiles. Don’t forget to subscribe so you don’t miss out on the next exciting idea!