One day, I was looking at the book, Crafty Science by Jane Bull. It has a bunch of STEAM projects for children to create at home. I showed my son the Invisible Ink activity and he said “Let’s do that mommy.” We looked around the house and gathered the materials.
I thought this would be a great drawing and writing activity for my son. He ended up writing numbers. This is a great project to expose your child to literacy and science. If your child is learning how to read, write words that will challenge them to use phonics or sight words. The science in this project is explained at the end of this post.
Let’s Get Started!
Invisible Ink
Materials:
- Lemon
- Bowl
- Paintbrush or Cotton Swabs
- Paper
- Iron (for adult use only)
Method:
Squeeze a lemon into a bowl
Write your secret message on the paper in lemon juice using a paintbrush or cotton swab.
Draw quickly in order to check your work before it dries. It does not have to be as dark as the picture below. My son insisted on going over the numbers numerous times so he could see it.
To get the message, an adult should iron the paper with a hot iron until the message comes through
Warning:
- This activity may stain your iron with brown spots. This happened to me. I was able to get my iron squeaky clean by following the video below.
Why this activity Works:
- This works because lemon juice is an acid.
- When it is put on the paper, the acid destroys some of the paper surface.
- When you heat it up with the iron, the areas with the message turn brown first.
- Milk also works with this activity because it is slightly acidic.
Have fun with this simple activity!
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