Chalk, oil and water printing - really cool!

Ben discovered this in his much loved and well used book on facts, jokes, science and practically everything else. In my opinion this "science experiment" worked just as well as when we used the proper inks and water some time ago to get a similar effect. Seeing as how we have a small drawer full of chalks, this activity was free for us - whippee!

Take three chalks of three different colours. Place each set of coloured chalks inside seperate zipped bags (or tie the bag up, which is what we did) and crush the chalks carefully with a rolling pin or something similar.

Carefully tip each bag of crushed chalk into seperate plastic cups and add a tablespoon of oil to each cup and mix well.

Find a plastic container (one big enough to put a decent sized piece of paper into) and fill with water. Add the contents of each cup to the water. We were quite fascinated to see that the chalk bonded together on the bottom of the container, which isn't what the book suggested would happen! It said the chalk and oil would leave a film on the surface - it does if you stir it well.

Carefully lay your piece of paper on the surface of the water then lift off after a couple of secs. We used loads of pieces of paper, then I tried cotton fabric too and have made some lovely patterns. Ben had to urge to try printing his hands too - they looked lovely as well!