Simple & Fun: Dissolving Peppermint Experiment - Southwest Charlotte STEM Academy (2024)

This peppermint or candy cane science activity is also a fun Christmas sensory activity as well. We used quite a few of our senses along the way including sight, taste, smell, and touch!

Not only is this simple peppermint water science activity a great chance to observe the candy dissolving in the water, but it’s also a wonderful opportunity to extend the learning time with water sensory play. Students love all that hands-on time to explore.

• Peppermints and Candy Canes
• Bin with Water {room temp and warmer is nice for kids to play}
• Science Tools {Tongs, Tweezers, Magnifying Glass}
• Scoops, Small Containers, Basters, Funnels {Anything for Sensory Play}

STEP 1. Have your students unwrap the peppermint candy and place them gently in the water.

Make sure they check out what is happening right away. You can even set a timer for extra scientific data collection. Make sure to note any differences between the candy canes and the round mints when they are placed in water.

STEP 2. Continue to observe the candy.

If your students can sit patiently for a bit, the peppermints look really cool like you can see in my pictures. Once the water is mixed, it becomes more of pink color. It’s like the candies just disappear. Do you know why?

• What do you think is happening?
• What will happen if…?
• What do you smell? What do you see?
• How long do you think it will take? What does it feel like?

Candy canes and peppermints are made of sugar, and sugar dissolves in water. Super simple science, but it is a fun way to learn about things that dissolve in water and things that don’t.

When you add the candy to the water, the water (solvent) molecules are attracted to the sugar (solute) molecules. Once the attraction becomes large enough the water is able to pull individual sugar molecules from the bulk sugar crystals into the solution. The bonds between the sugar molecules are weaker than the amount of energy it takes to break these bonds, which makes our peppermint candy soluble.