Lemon Drops

 

Today's Snack: Cut broccoli into bite-sized pieces. Steam over (not in) a little boiling water for a few minutes. In the microwave, melt 1 T. of butter. Stir in 1 T. of lemon juice - either fresh-squeezed from a lemon, or bottled juice. Use the rest of the lemon juice for today's activity. Pour over the veggies, and eat and enjoy.

 

-------------------------

 

Supplies:

Watercolor paper (buy at an art store)

Set of watercolor paints & brush

Small container for water

Lemon juice in small container

Q-Tips

Yellow construction paper

 

 

It's just as much fun to take paint AWAY from a painting as to put paint on there! And you can do it with a little bit of chemistry. Over and over again, we see that science and art go together. Today we're going to use a little science to improve our art project.

 

            First, on a small piece of watercolor paper, paint a shape or an animal or anything you'd like with watercolor paints. You can use one or more colors. You might want to think of something that lives around water, since watercolor paint looks wet, even when it's dry.

 

First, with a clean, wet brush, dab water on your paper where you want to add color. Then come back with watercolor paint on the brush. Clean brushes as you switch colors.

 

Just make sure most of your lines and shapes are pretty wide - wider than the width of the tip of Q-Tip.

 

            And here's why:

 

            Once your watercolor painting is dry, decide where you would like to have some white stripes, polka dots, blobs or other white shapes. And decide where you would like to have spaces that are a lighter hue or tint (lighter intensity) of the same color you painted with.

 

            For example, you might have a butterfly with purple wings. You can come in with a Q-Tip dipped in lemon juice, and make some faint dots or designs that will dry as lavender - lighter purple - and make the wing more interesting and lifelike.

 

When you are ready, dip a Q-Tip into the lemon juice. Squeeze it with your fingers a little bit so that it's not dripping wet. Use it to take away paint from the places in your watercolor painting that you'd rather have white or a lighter color.

 

Play around with it until you get a painting that's even better with some of it taken away! You may need to use several Q-tips.

 

            Why does the lemon juice take the color away? Because it has a lot of acid in it. Acid is used in all kinds of ways to clean surfaces and remove unwanted areas. Lemon juice and vinegar are examples of common household acids which are often used for cleaning windows and other objects.

 

It's great when acid works on a surface and removes part of it, on purpose. It's bad when it's unintended or accidental. Acid can ruin things!

 

            But in our case, the acid in the lemon juice makes our painting better and more interesting.

 

            "Frame" your picture on a slightly larger piece of construction paper - yellow, of course, to remind you of the lemon juice that made your picture special.