clouds in a jar you can drink!

This shaving cream cloud project was all over pinterest a couple of years ago. I pinned it immediately and got to bringing jars to the preschool where the children thoroughly enjoyed themselves. As I watched them drip, drop, pour and stir themselves silly I wondered if we could do this as a fun drinkable concoction.

Turns out, you can! Here's what you need to make your drinkable clouds in a jar:

*clear empty drinking glass

*clear sparkling water or lemon lime soda

*canned whipped topping

*powdered drink mix in two primary colors (or juice)

*1/2 cup of sugar (if using powdered drink mix)

*1/2 cup of water

*eye dropper

*milk beverage of choice (optional) 

*happy straw

To set up this project, fill your clear glass about 3/4 full with soda water or lemon lime soda. We used an empty almond butter jar and soda water.*

Empty contents of powdered drink mix into separate containers. Add 1/4 cup sugar to each and 1/4 cup of water. Mix until all powdery bits are dissolved. If you are using a pre-sweetened drink mix, omit the sugar. You can also use sno-cone syrup, unfrozen otter pops, or  juice.  If using juice, use two colors that will mix up fun colors. Gatorade could work as well. This is a fun science play project and not even close to being healthy so have fun with it. Just make sure to use small glasses so your kiddos are not too sugared up.

Top off jar with whipped topping and hand your kiddo an eye-dropper. You can find eye-droppers at your local drug store in the pharmacy section. Ours came from American Science Surplus and are glass. Drugstores usually carry larger droppers made of plastic which are easier for small hands to handle. Your kiddos can use the droppers to transfer the juice to the top of the cream. The weight of the juice will sink through the cream and create nifty spirals of color in the soda.

If your colors are deep enough and different enough, your child can see some fun color mixing in the works. After they have had their fill, have them add a little of their favorite milk beverage and you have created a happy creamy drink!

So there ya go, a little bit of mixing, a little bit of science, a little bit of fun, and a lot of tastiness!

*I would recommend using a lemon lime soda or clear lemonade instead of sparkling water as it took a LOT of juice to flavor the concoction.