Celery Science: Capillary Action

This is an activity we used to do as kids with celery or carnations.
Who knew it was a science experiment in disguise? Capillary Action http://theoutlawmom.com/2012/07/12/play-science-experiment-for-kids-celery-capillary-action/

It's an easy one that leads to exciting results and happens to make a smooth segue from our Rainbow Week into our Seed/Plant Discovery projects...coming soon.

O loves using food colouring in projects.
I admit, it looks amazing as it hits liquid!

We opted for three lengths of celery stalks and I tried to choose stalk with leaves, so we could really observe the results of water absorption by plants.
Colouring will show up in the veins, but it may not be as obvious.
Before adding the colour, we talked about what we think will happen and which stalks will produce results first.
I banked on the mini stalks showing the earliest signs of colour, but I was sorely mistaken.
The longest stalk absorbed the water the fastest and produced the prettiest results!