Make Your Own Rock Candy

***NEEDS ADULT SUPERVISION***

Here's another fun project from Pinterest. Rock candy is so delicious. My sister's and I used to have this little store around our way and we'd each get our favorite color on the way home from school. Now a days my daughter finds it every now and then at Mars Supermarket or at Wockenfus candy shop at the mall. Anyways here's a chance to make some of your own. Enjoy!

Here's what you will need:

A wooden skewer (you can also use a clean wooden chopstick)

A clothespin

1 cup of water

2-3 cups of sugar

A tall narrow glass or jar

Directions:

1. Clip the wooden skewer into the clothespin so that it hangs down inside the glass and is about 1 inch (2.5 cm) from the bottom of the glass. (as shown)
2. Remove the skewer and clothespin and put them aside for now.
3. Get a helpful adult!
4. Pour the water into a pan and bring it to boil.
5. Pour about 1/4 cup of sugar into the boiling water, stirring until it dissolves.
6. Keep adding more and more sugar, each time stirring it until it dissolves, until no more will dissolve. This will take time and patience and it will take longer for the sugar to dissolve each time.Be sure you don't give up too soon. Once no more sugar will dissolve, remove it from heat and allow it to cool for at least 20 minutes.
7. NOTE: While it is cooling, some people like to dip half of the skewer in the sugar solution and then roll it in some sugar to help jump start the crystal growth. If you do this, be sure to let the skewer cool completely so that sugar crystals do not fall off when you place it back in the glass.
8. Have your friendly ADULT carefully pour the sugar solution into the jar almost to the top. Then submerge the skewer back into the glass making sure that it is hanging straight down the middle without touching the sides.
9. Allow the jar to fully cool and put it someplace where it will not be disturbed.
10. Now just wait. The sugar crystals will grow over the next 3-7 days.

***Want colored rock candy? Add food coloring to your sugar water and make sure sure that it is pretty dark in color for the best result.

For further information visit sciencebob

Books related to our project:

Candy Experiments

Brilliant use of Valentine's, Easter, Halloween, and other holiday candy! Fun, colorful, and full of surprises, Candy Experiments will have kids happily pouring their candy down the drain and learning some basic science along the way.  Candy is more than a sugary snack. With candy, you can become a scientific detective. You can test candy for secret ingredients, peel the skin off candy corn, or float an “m” from M&M’s. You can spread candy dyes into rainbows, or pour rainbow layers of colored water. You'll learn how to turn candy into crystals, sink marshmallows, float taffy, or send soda spouting skyward. You can even make your own lightning. Candy Experiments teaches kids a new use for their candy. As children try eye-popping experiments, such as growing enormous gummy worms and turning cotton candy into slime, they’ll also be learning science. Best of all, they’ll willingly pour their candy down the drain. Candy Experiments contains 70 science experiments, 29 of which have never been previously published. Chapter themes include secret ingredients, blow it up, sink and float, squash it, and other fun experiments about color, density, and heat. The book is written for children between the ages of 7 and 10, though older and younger ages will enjoy it as well. Each experiment includes basic explanations of the relevant science, such as how cotton candy sucks up water because of capillary action, how Pixy Stix cool water because of an endothermic reaction, and how gummy worms grow enormous because of the water-entangling properties. Available on amazon

Candy Around the World

Candy is an important part of history, culture and traditions around the world. From the Plum Crack Seed candy in China to Dulce de Leche from Mexico, the candies from around the world are as diverse as their culture. Did you know that children in Italy receive chocolate eggs filled with toys on Easter? Or that in Mexico they celebrate El Dia de los Muertos instead of Halloween? Candy Around the World takes the reader on an exciting confectionery tour around the world. Each chapter focuses on a specific region and provides an exciting look into the history and origin of their sweet treat. Designed for children and parents to read, explore, cook and learn together, Candy Around the World is filled with recipes, games, activities and fun facts to make learning about history and cultures around the world fun. This book is sure to be a delight for the entire family. Visit www.candyaroundtheworldbook.com for more games, science experiments, activities, recipes and more! Available on Amazon

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Amazon

A Craft You Can Eat

We had this candy store near our school and all the kids would flock there after school. When my sister and I were kids my parents would give each of us 50 cents to buy a treat from the candy store after school. My favorite candy was candy necklaces and these wafer candies that looked like flying saucers with beads inside. I always bought one of those, a peanut chewy thing called "Squirrels", some Sixlets and my favorite,rock candy. 

Making your own rock candy is a fun. Thee recipe below is for rock candy that you can eat. You can color and flavor the candy, too.

 

 

 
 
 
 

Rock Candy Materials
Basically all you need to make rock candy is sugar and hot water. The color of your crystals will depend on the type of sugar you use (raw sugar is more golden and refined granulated sugar) and whether or not you add coloring. Any food-grade colorant will work.


Materials Needed:

• 3 cups sugar
• 1 cup water
• clean glass jar
• cotton string
• pencil or knife
• food coloring (optional)
• 1/2 tsp to 1 tsp flavoring oil or extract (optional)
• Lifesaver candy (optional)
• pan
• stove or microwave

Make Rock Candy

1. Pour the sugar and water into the pan.
2. Heat the mixture to a boil, stirring constantly. You want the sugar solution to hit boiling, but not get hotter or cook too long. If you overheat the sugar solution you'll make hard candy, which is nice, but not what we're going for here.
3. Stir the solution until all the sugar has dissolved. The liquid will be clear or straw-colored, without any sparkly sugar. If you can get even more sugar to dissolve, that's good, too.
4. If desired, you can add food coloring and flavoring to the solution. Mint, cinnamon, or lemon extract are good flavorings to try. Squeezing the juice from a lemon, orange, or lime is a way to give the crystals natural flavor, but the acid and other sugars in the juice may slow your crystal formation.
5. Set the pot of sugar syrup in the refrigerator to cool. You want the liquid to be about 50°F (slightly cooler than room temperature). Sugar becomes less soluble as it cools, so chilling the mixture will make it so there is less chance of accidentally dissolving sugar you are about to coat on your string.
6. While the sugar solution is cooling, prepare your string. You are using cotton string because it is rough and non-toxic. Tie the string to a pencil, knife, or other object that can rest across the top of the jar. You want the string to hang into the jar, but not touch the sides or bottom.
7. You don't want to weight your string with anything toxic, so rather than use a metal object, you can tie a Lifesaver to the bottom of the string.
8. Whether you are using the Lifesaver or not, you want to 'seed' the string with crystals so that the rock candy will form on the string rather than on the sides and bottom of the jar. There are two easy ways to do this. One is to dampen the string with a little of the syrup you just made and dip the string in sugar. Another option is to soak the string in the syrup and then hang it to dry, which will cause crystals to form naturally (this method produces 'chunkier' rock candy crystals).
9. Once your solution has cooled, pour it into the clean jar. Suspend the seeded string in the liquid. Set the jar somewhere quiet. You can cover the jar with a paper towel or coffee filter to keep the solution clean.
10. Check on your crystals, but don't disturb them. You can remove them to dry and eat when you are satisfied with the size of your rock candy. Ideally you want to allow the crystals to grow for 3-7 days.
11. You can help your crystals grow by removing (and eating) any sugar 'crust' that forms on top of the liquid. If you notice a lot of crystals forming on the sides and bottom of the container and not on your string, remove your string and set it aside. Pour the crystallized solution into a saucepan and boil/cool it (just like when you make the solution). Add it to a clean jar and suspend your growing rock candy crystals.

You can watch a video tutorial for making rock candy if you would like to see what to expect.
**Common problems when making rock candy.

Books related to topic:

"The incredible secret formula book" gives plenty of neat little things to keep you and your kids busy on those boring summer days. Most of the things in this book use items you probably all ready have in your home: paper, corn starch, sugar and various food items. This book details things like How to make invisible ink or disappering ink. If that doesn't interest you there's making chalk out of egg shells or how to recylce paper. You can even make "Mutant slime" a kids favorite. Don't like mutant Slime? How 'bout psylly slime or miss muppet slime? Victal slime or udderly gross slime? Lots of fun for kids and thier mom and or dad" Reviewed by: Yoco  FOR MORE INFORMATION

"I got this for my sons who both love science. They loved looking at the book, and we even tried a couple, but they've really got to be in a focused, paying-attention mood to do these. More than once, I've gotten out all of the materials to do it, only to find that they didn't want to do it anymore. My oldest is 8, so maybe the 10-12 age range might have better luck" Reviewed By:Raisingkidsforgod
FOR MORE INFORMATION