When children see a magic trick, they are enchanted and motivated to understand how it works. This natural curiosity is a great starting point for introducing scientific concepts.

Concept: Density

This magic trick is great for children to choose or create their own role-play.

The bottle of water may represent the seabed and the ketchup packet may represent a submarine or a fish. The water bottle could be down the rabbit hole and the ketchup packet could be Alice. These are just two examples of stories that can be used as context for the trick.

The bottle itself can be animated with children's drawings.

This trick can also be used by primary school teachers to explain the concept of density and how submarines work.

This illusion can be performed with children to demonstrate the importance of hand washing.

Instructions:

- Start by asking children to draw what they think are germs on our hands. 

- Insert the drawing into the plastic bag, ensuring that it is fully sealed inside. 

- Children should now draw their hand on the bag with a permanent pen.

- Fill a container with Water.

- Submerge the Bag in Water.

Observe the Illusion: As you lower the bag into the water, you will notice that the drawing germs to disappear and we can only see what has been drawn in acetate pen, a clean hand.

The trick involve a simple optical illusion that demonstrates the concept of total internal reflection. Although this is a complicated concept for young children, it can be explained in a very simple way: - Imagine you are playing with a flashlight. When you shine the flashlight on a mirror, the light bounces back, right? That’s called reflection. What happens in this experiment is that the light is reflected without letting you see the drawing that is inside, we call this total reflection.

This very simple activity can be performed by children as a simple magic trick, the magic paper that reveals secret messages and much more! An opportunity to talk about light and colour.

SUGGESTIONS

This activity can be done at festive times, such as a card with a Christmas message, a card for Mother's Day or Father's Day, or any other event that is on the activity plan.

An exhibition can be held where children draw what they think, inspired by Laurent Moreau's book "What do you think about?". They can draw what they think in blue and hide it with red, orange and yellow, and only with very special glasses (with red filters) will we be able to see what they've drawn.

The science behind

A red filter absorbs all lights but the red light it transmits.

So, as the colour white reflects all lights, when we use a red filter we will only observe the colour red. A white paper will look red.

The colour red reflects red light, so using a red filter a red drawing will look red.

The colour blue reflects blue light, so using a red filter a blue message/drawing will look "black" (although scientifically speaking black is the absence of colour) as the filter does not let blue light through and no light reaches our eyes.

This trick can be used in Pre-School and Primary to talk about shapes using a story. 

For older students we can use this trick/illusion to talk about perspective. 

How about using this story for the little ones and adding this illusion?

"Once upon a time there was a square named Claire. Claire liked to play  and explore. One day, something magical happened. Claire started to change. She became a curve, Claire giggled with joy, rolling like never before. She discovered a new way to play. Bute as the sun began to set, Claire wanted to be a square again. With a wish and a twist she turned back."

This trick can be used in Pre-School and Primary to talk about shapes using a story. 

For older students we can use this trick/illusion to talk about perspective, point of view and to talk about our differences and how we can try to eliminate what divides us. 

How about using this story for the little ones and adding this illusion?

“Once upon a time, there were two intertwined circles called Twirly and Whirly. They always saw things differently and neither could understand the other's point of view.

One day, they realized that these differences were tearing them apart. They decided to take some time to understand each other and work together.

With patience and some tweaking, counting their differences, they found a way to align their views. In doing so, they magically transformed themselves into a frame and both of them, at the same time, could understand each other because they were looking to the same thing at the same time.

We learn from Twirly and Whirly, we can overcome differences and that we can find a way to see the world in the same way and understand each other's point of view.”