Did you know Hippopotamus comes from the Ancient Greek ‘river horse’?
The hippopotamus is semi-aquatic, inhabiting rivers and lakes. They will remain in the water and mud throughout the day to keep cool and at dusk they will emerge to graze on grass.

This week we are combining art and science to create beautiful oil and water paintings.

You will need:
• shallow baking dish with a layer of coloured water (use a few drops of food colouring)
• cooking oil in a small bowl
• heavy paper or card
• eye droppers/pipettes – wonderful for some fine motor work.

Directions:
Invite your child to make a few drops of oil in the water using an eye dropper/pippette

Gently lay a sheet of paper on top just for a moment and then remove to dry.

The effect… a beautiful marble-like picture. The science…. Oil and water don’t mix because water molecules are polar and oil molecules are non-polar. In the baking dish you will notice that the water molecules will pull towards one another and the oil the same. Oil is also less dense than water so it will float on the surface of the water.