Fun candy experiments kids love. A great way to use up leftover candy from Easter, parties, Halloween, and Christmas!
Easter typically involves candy. Lots of candy. Too much candy for little stomachs! We got some science experiment mileage out of our Easter candy by seeing what we could do with our candy besides eating it!
First, we microwaved jelly beans and gummy bears. The jelly beans (above) developed an interesting stringy texture (photo above), while the gummy bears melted quickly into a shapeless, jello-type glob:
Then the kids, of course, wanted to repeat our growing gummy candy experiment!
They decided to see if stirring the gummy bears would speed up the process:
It didn’t seem to make any difference, apart from making the bears a little worse for the wear and tear. Lily’s wound up disintegrating, possibly due to fork-inflicted wounds.
But there was a beautifully dramatic difference the next morning:
Got peeps? Try making Peep play dough!
Want to combine candy and math? Here’s a simple statistics experiment that will stump most adults!
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Snackable Science is another great edible science resource for kids:
What are your favorite candy experiments for kids?
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MaryAnne is a craft loving educator, musician, photographer, and writer who lives in Silicon Valley with her husband Mike and their four children.
I was thinking this looked a little familiar. I still think candy experiments are fun. My kids have now figured out you can buy clearance candy afterward, and so now have loads of candy.
cool ideas
I dont get it so we have to shape a gummy bear?
Put the gummy bear in water, and it will grow after a few hours.
Soaking the gummy bears in water has the sugar dissolving out leaving a bland tasteless gelatin behind. So don’t eat it…OR, let them eat it and they learn!! :)
Perfect idea – I think I will do this with some leftover Valentine candy.
Looks fun and yum!!! We should try this as well!
Looks fun and yum!!! We should try this as well!
It is a lot of fun, and very simple :)
What a fun idea! My children would LOVE it! Thanks so much for linking to Science Sparks! xx
We love candy experiments, too. One of my favorites at Easter is just dropping candy into a bowl of water, because so much Easter candy floats (Peeps, marshmallow eggs, Whopper eggs, etc.) I’ll have to try microwaving gummy bears, that looks fun.
hmmm…. that’s really interesting. i had no idea that gummy bears would do that!
Any gummy candy will work – they expand as they absorb the water slowly through osmosis. It’s probably my kids’ favorite science experiment!
Science and sweets! Now thats our kind of science!
Brilliant.
Thank you for sharing on Science Sparks.
Thats the best candy idea ever…experiment with it!
These look fun! The detail on the grown-up gummy bear is amazing… Who knew they had teeth?
We have yet to try the gummy bear experiment. I wish we would have done some experimenting with Easter candy instead of eating it all lol ;)
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Those look so fun! My kids would love it.
Sandy
Candy experiments are on my “to do” list. Growing gummy bears are fun, except I wouldn’t want to eat them afterwards!
My kids do always eat them – can’t say they look super appetizing, though :)
Great ideas – have to see if we have any candy left!
Great idea and a much better use for candy than me eating it all. LOL! Pinning this! Vicky from http://www.messforless.net
What a great way to use up the Easter candy without eating it! Thankfully Joshua moved up to the status of hiding eggs this year for the little ones so we didn’t have near as much candy as we’ve had in the past.
Any experiments that involve candy are fun, especially if you can still eat it afterwards……